Legend of Spyro: Hero of Earth
by Dragongod Eclipsen
Summary: Long ago in the Dragon Realms, before the reign of Dragonkind, Humans prospered. They created great machines and wielded the Elements like an artist paints with a brush. But they disappeared. Now, a new human has been sent to the Dragon Realms, and it's the duty of Spyro and Cynder's daughter to guide the human and discover the lost secrets of humanity.
1. Prologue

Have you ever thought about the peoples of the past? How they prospered at one point, but fell to dust the next?

In the Dragon Realms, Humanity was much the same. They built great machines that supported their empire for ages and wielded the Elements so easily and with such skill that it came to them like breathing in and out.

But of course, every civilization has it's life span. The Human's downfall came from their hubris, for they were not satisfied with their own control over the four Elements, and sought a fifth to cement their rule in the Dragon Realms.

Aether. The all-powerful Element of the Purple Dragons. The Humans searched for a source of it endlessly, drying up every Energy Gem on the face of their empire. The Earth's will manifested, and a great calamity fell upon the empire of humanity, sinking their structures and technology into the Earth itself, where they would stay buried.

That is where the story of Humanity in the Dragon Realms ends.

Or so it was thought.


	2. A Hero is Chosen

"C'mon Felix! You gotta lighten up a bit!"

Felix grumbled as he walked. He hated the woods, and now he was dragging his feet through the muddy dirt of the outside, and against his will no less!

His sister Jenna, and her friends Matthew and Nickolas had dragged him out of the house, claiming that he needed to get away from his room. Felix didn't understand why, as he preferred the warm comfort of his room to the dirty forest outside their home.

He trudged onward, ignoring the loud talking of the three behind him and keeping his fists balled up in the front pocket of his sweatshirt. He grimaced as his muck boots stuck to the wet forest floor, forcing him to pull his feet upward as he walked.

Felix ducked as a branch passed by his head, narrowly missing his jet black hair. He reached up and straightened the dark strands, making sure they were still tied up in his usual neat ponytail. Giggling erupted behind him, and before he knew it he was sent forward by a happy shove to the back.

He stumbled forward, nearly slipping down a wet slope. He stuck his arms out as he righted himself, making sure not to lean forward too far. After he had regained his balance, Felix gave a hard glare to his sister, who giggled behind her hand at her brother.

He clenched his teeth as he looked forward and stomped off down the slope and farther into the forest.

"Hey! Felix, it was a joke! Wait!"

He ignored his sister as he moved forward. He felt his teeth squeak under the sheer force he was putting into clenching them. He had to resist the urge to punch a tree as he passed it and kept walking. The cries of his sister and her friends begam to fade as he fast-walked into the woods, his anger flooding his mind like an avalanche.

Felix didn't notice as the trees and grass began to look more green and more plant life started to appear the deeper he went, still consumed by his frustration.

He slowly lowered his pace, his eyes glued to what was in front of him. The greenery around him became more luscious and healthy as he moved, almost beckoning him forward. Soon, Felix slowed to a halt, beholding green shaded beauty of the forest.

The voices of his sister and her friends were gone now, giving him the peace and quiet he wanted, excluding the chirping of birds and the rush of the wind.

Felix glanced around, finding himself in a part of the forest he didn't recognize. He had strayed far from the patted down grass of the paths around his home, and now he was deeper in the woods than he cared to be.

His anger returned as he realised that he was stuck in what he hated the most; the filth of the outside world and what little it provided humanity. He grumbled before walking forward again, determined to find his way back to civilization.

He walked for a great amount of time, but found no trace of human activity as he searched. The woods seemed untouched by humanity, completely within the hold of nature and it's harsh ways. Felix scowled as a deer sprinted away, disgusted at the sight of the creature.

He turned his gaze forward, spotting a small clearing a small ways ahead. He sped up his pace, hoping that some kind of human influence was residing there. He climbed over a log and ducked under branches as he moved, somehow able to predict where the plants and dead wood would be beforehand.

He reached the edge of the clearing and stopped dead in his tracks, surprised the image of it.

The clearing was a lush green and held a large clear lake in it's center. Animals and insects roamed about, having not noticed Felix's presence. At the far end of the lake sat a large purple crystal that was certainly not of natural make.

Felix stared for a long time, drinking in the scenery as best he could. A few animals perked up as he swiveled his head around, but returned to their business a few moments after.

Felix looked downward at the slope leading into the clearing, finding the clear water of the lake to be more appetizing than water normally was. He had no idea how long he had been walking, and by now his body most likely needed some kind of liquid intake.

He stepped slowly down the hill, gripping some foliage to help him balance himself. The animals once again looked at the new arrival, watching as he made his way down the slope. Even though Felix made a fair amount of noise as he moved, the animals didn't flinch, seemingly watching with a quiet respect.

Felix of course held no respect in return, instead trying to shoo away whatever animal he deemed to too close to him. He accidently robbed a Robin of it's tree branch as he searched for a balance hold, not bothering to pay any mind to the bird as it tweeted angrily at him.

Felix reached the bottom of the slope in a regular amount of time, taking a moment to dust himself of any dirt or grime that had the nerve to touch him. After a small brushing Felix moved forward, uncaring towards the various wildlife he disturbed as he trotted towards the clear water.

He kneeled at the water's edge, grimacing as he dipped his hands in for a drink, disturbing a school of fish as he did so. He took a few drags from the water, finding it to be quite tasty despite being sullied by animals and the nature around it.

After he was finished drinking, Felix stood straight and observed his surroundings. The animals watched him with a mixture of curiosity and hostility, which he returned with a glare of his own.

His eyes became locked on the large crystal at the other end of the lake, it's shining surface reflecting the light that streamed through the treetops. He stepped away from the lake and began to walk along the side of it, keeping his eyes on the crystal as he moved.

The animals resting near the lake stepped away as Felix passed, still giving him looks of annoyance. He snarled as a deer sniffed at him, making the creature step back quickly and fearfully.

It took a stretch of time to reach the other side, as the lake was fairly large. The sun was appearing to set as the light in the clearing began to dim and the shadows deepened. The daylight animals soon dispersed, allowing the nocturnal creatures to have their turn at the lake.

Felix reached the other end as the last light began to weaken. The crystal was planted on a patch of earth set a bit higher than the rest of the clearing, giving Felix a view of the entire area. He looked downwards as the light fully disappeared and witnessed something phenomenonal.

The lake shined brightly with it's own light, spreading a glow throughout the entire clearing and shimmering with white ripples along the water's surface. The light shined onto Felix, illuminating his dark green sweatshirt brilliantly. The crystal responded to the light of the water and started to emit a glow as well.

The crystal hummed as it glowed, shining much more brightly compared to the lake. Felix watched as the crystal sent speckles of purple light shining into the clearing like a spinning nightlight for a child.

Felix could barely process the miracle before him as the nocturnal animals flooded into the clearing. They ignored Felix as they went about their business, having already become acquainted to the human world through either their experience with artificial light or through the words of their peers.

The crystal hummed louder, catching Felix's attention and drawing his gaze away from the nighttime spectacle. The glow of the crystal entranced Felix as soon as he made eye contact with the purple light emanating from within it.

It hummed louder, now mimicking the rumble of an earthquakes aftershock. Felix reached into his pocket and withdrew a pair of brown leather gloves, slipping them on with trained fluidity.

He reached forward, almost touching the purple gemstone. He glided his gloved fingers over the surface of it, watching as small trails of purple electricity danced between the crystal and his fingers.

He pulled his hand back, realising that the crystal was far from normal. He inspected his hand, somehow finding that the appendage felt energized after simply being near the gemstone. He glanced at the purple crystal once more, his gaze being drawn back into a haze.

He reached forward again, this time making full contact with the gem. The light brightened immediately, shining bright enough to engulf the clearing as well as a portion of the forest around it.

The cracking of lightning and the breaking of stone rang through Felix's ears, flooding his head with a pain that was unlike anything he had felt before.

The light emitted from the crystal maintained itself for a solid five seconds, sending the nocturnal animals scattering into the wind.

The light faded, leaving a large scorch mark were Felix once was.

The clearing was silent until the echoes of voices began to flow through the air.

"Felix?! Where are you?!"


	3. The First Encounter

In response to Guest: Yeah, oops on my part. Didn't mean to make him out to be that way.

In response to LoNeWoLf: Thanks! also, welcome back dude!

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Felix groaned as he awakened.

His arm was burning with pain so intense that it felt like it had been crushed with a rock. The rest of his body was also sore, and it hurt to move with any sort of speed. It was somewhat hard to breathe as well, given the soreness of his chest.

He slowly opened his eyes, finding that sunlight streamed over his body despite his memory stating that it had been nighttime. He leaned forward with a velocity that would make a turtle seem like a drag racer.

He scanned the area, finding himself to be in a completely different place from before. The lake was absent and a large stone with inscriptions had taken the place of the crystal. The clearing was still present, but it was leagues smaller than the previous, being only fifty yards in width rather than big enough to contain a body of water.

The grass and trees were just as green, if not more than usual. The wind carried a strange feeling that Felix could only relate to a vague concept similar to that of energy and life. The sounds of the forest weaved themselves into a strange harmony like that of an elegant song, filling Felix's ears with the voices of nature.

The forest itself was lush and the trees were incredibly close together, forming a complex canopy of tree tops to block out the sun, save for small rays of light. The ground sent a warm feeling into Felix's body and tickled his legs with grass, almost as if it was trying to wrap itself around him.

Felix stood quickly, grimacing as the ache in his body intensified into electrical pain. He found nature to be disgusting, given his love for cleanliness. Dirt, insects and nature in general was off-putting to say the least.

Felix continued to look around the clearing, locking on to the stone that had replaced the large purple crystal. An inscription had been carved into it in a language that he didn't understand, but was somehow familiar and nostalgic.

The stone itself was fairly large, being big enough to be too heavy for one person to lift without help, but not heavy enough to warrant the use of heavy machinery.

As Felix inspected the stone, he made the mistake of moving his left arm. Pain immediately ripped through the appendage, the pain receptors nearly overloading with the amount of information they sent to his head. The pain was so intense that Felix had to stop any movement he made in order for the pain to lessen.

While he focused on recovering from the burning in his arm, Felix's ears caught an unsettling noise from behind the stone. The sound of heavy, ragged and inhuman breathing paired with the clanking of heavy metal grew louder as the source approached the clraring. Two bright purple dots could be seen from the darkness of the forest, centered straight on Felix.

Felix tried to moved his legs, but the pain from his arm worsened to the point where he had to bite down one of the loudest screams he could produce. The sounds grew louder as Felix tried and failed to run.

A creature stumbled into the clearing, it's large hand slamming onto the stone as it tried to support itself with a ragged snarl. It gazed at Felix, it's eye sockets missing any sort of organ save for the two purple dots that were it's eyes.

The creature dragged itself upward, revealing itself to be a charred human body with the bare minimum of muscle hanging off the bones. On top of it's corpse like body was a set of rusted and dirty plate armor that was so damaged that it was missing the elbow guards and thigh plates and a Nordic style helmet that barely hid the creatures mangled face.

The creature reached down, drawing a rusted and chipped longsword from it's side. The blade gave a hideous screech as it left what remained of the sheath. The metal of the sheath had rusted right onto the sword, giving it an extra guard on top of the original.

The creature howled before lunging forward at Felix, it's sword poised for a horizontal strike that was obviously meant to decapitate him. Felix's body, through it's adrenaline induced miracles, managed to ignore the pain in his left arm and throw him backwards, just barely avoiding the creature's sword as it glided over his hair.

Felix landed hard, letting out an ear piercing scream as his arm felt as if it had shattered with the sudden shock of hitting the grass. The creature snarled in response to Felix's sudden movement and stepped forward to finish the job.

As it grew closer, the creature lifted the sword over it's shoulder and opened it's mouth.

"I̶̥͚̽̋ ̶̖̙̆̅a̸͖̔m̷̨͘ ̸̣̔͠e̵̖̭͌͆t̶̲̦͌e̸̩̳͐̽r̵̭̥̓͝n̵̬̖̎ȃ̶̻l̵͓̯̏̀..."

Felix began to panic as the creature prepared to swing it's weapon, and the pain in his left arm all but melted away in the rush of emotion and hormones that came with the panic. Felix lifted his arms to protected his face, screaming while he did so.

A horrible crack rang through the air, making birds and animals scatter in the wake of the sound.

Felix held his eyes shut, expecting the pain of death to rip through him at any moment. But it never came, and he opened his eyes to investigate. He cracked his eyes and looked past his arms, still held in a protective manner.

The creature gagged and breathed raggedly as it stepped backwards, a large hole having been impaled into it's armor and through it's chest. A large piece of stone had erupted from the Earth, stabbing the creature dead in the chest. The evidence was obvious as the stone spike was stained with a black bloody liquid at the point.

The creature staggered backwards, holding an armored hand to the wound and pulling it back. The wound dripped the same black blood that was on the stone, confirming that it had struck the creature. It looked upward, giving a chilling look to Felix before backing away.

"Ǐ̸̧̢̦͐ ̵̩̅́a̷̞͋m̵̻̮̾̆̈ ̷̘̯͊e̵̛̜t̸͙̮́͜ȇ̷̪͘ȓ̶͈̮͈̈́̔n̶͍̙̾̅͠a̸͈̽l̸̯̤̆̐..."

It uttered again as it stumbled back into the darkness of the forest, the clanking of it's armor and it's ragged breathing fading as the creature retreated.

Felix breathed heavily as the sound faded, the pain in his arm and body beginning to return in full force. He lowered his body onto the ground, no longer caring that the dirt was caking his clothing. The grass seemed to ease the pain a bit, somehow giving Felix a sense of comfort as he closed his eyes.

As he passed out, Felix saw the image of a strange winged creature approaching him and the dimmed sound of speaking.

After that, everything was darkness.

-Transition-

The sound of speaking hung at the edge of Felix's senses, but his vision remained black. The pain in his arm has lessened greatly, and the ache in his body had all but disappeared.

It felt like was laying on something solid, and the sounds around him were no longer that of the forest. The voices grew clearer and louder as Felix's senses began to sharpen.

The voices were that of an adult man with a deep voice and a young girl with a relatively level amount of deepness and lightness. The voices echoed, giving Felix the idea that he was in a hospital.

He cracked his eyes open, discovering that he was not in a hospital, but laying in the deep part of a rocky cave. A fire crackled to the side of him, sounding like it was more than a few feet away.

The voices finally sharpened enough for him to make out what they said.

"I don't understand how he got here. I thought Eclipsen closed the portal?"

"He never said that he did, dad. We only know that he reopened it after the first time he visited."

"So more humans could come through?"

"We don't know for sure. I just think it's weird that he would appear there, at Eclipsen's grave. Well, ex-grave."

"It is strange..."

Felix listened quietly, trying to peice toghether what they were talking about. He was sharper than he was usually given credit for though, and he knew that the voices were talking about him and how he had been taken away from the normal world.

He turned his head and closed his eyes, trying to keep his consciousness a secret. In the process, he moved his left arm a little to roughly. The pain immediately intensified, drawing a pained gasp from Felix.

The voices promptly became quiet and the sound of claws hitting stone approached. The sound stopped as soon as it reached him, and Felix remained steadfast in keeping his eyes closed.

The footsteps wandered over to his left arm, and something pointed touched his elbow. Upon contact Felix howled with a mixture of pain and anger, shooting upwards and gripping his arm. He immediately regretted that decision as his arm flared with more pain as he touched it.

"Oh, you're awake! I'm sorry, I didn't know it hurt that much!"

The female voice said. Felix only glanced over, but returned his gaze once he realized what he was looking at.

A small purple dragon sat next to where he laid, looking at him with curiosity and worry. It stood about the height of a large dog, looking like it would stand a bit higher than his waist.

It moved over to his legs and looked him in the eye with a measure of worry.

"My name is Sirona. Do you have a name?"

By now the pain in Felix's arm was starting to lessen, giving him enough slack to speak. At this point, he figured, it would be pointless to withhold important information as he was stuck somewhere that was quite obviously not his home.

"Felix."

He muttered. The dragon nodded before moving back to his arm. Felix assumed that the dragon was female, as her voice suggested so. She looked intently at him arm before giving him a questioning look.

"May I?"

Felix looked forward, debating whether or not to answer her. After a small time, he decided that he didn't have very much to loose. He nodded, waiting for Sirona to do something to his arm.

She leaned closer, sniffing at his sweatshirt before leaning to the right.

"Dad! Could you bring me the medical book?"

"Which one?"

The deeper voice replied, prompting Felix to look over. Another purple dragon stood by the fire, looking between a small collection of differently labled books. The shade of purple that the dragon bore was much brighter than Sirona, and he stood at the size of a horse.

"The human one!"

Sirona answered. The dragon then moved over a few books before picking the intended one up and moving over. As the dragon approached they set down the book near Felix and opened it, flipping through the pages until they reached a diagram of a human arm.

Sirona moved over to the book and began reading it. The words on the page were written in Enlgish, Felix noted. He let out a relieved sigh, somewhat glad that he wouldn't have a language barrier to cross.

Sirona looked up at him with questioning eyes, drawing back his attention.

"Does it feel broken? I'm sorry if it hurts to check."

Felix narrowed his eyes before slowly pressing down on his arm. The pain made his grimace as he prodded, but he managed to hold in any loud noises.

After a small amount of medicinal torture, he confirmed that all the bones seemed to be in the right place and turned back to Sirona, who looked on with a look of slight unease.

"Nothing broken."

Felix said, making sure not whimper as the pain faded. Sirona nodded before looking down at the book again. After a small amount of time, she spoke again.

"What kind of pain is it?"

Felix drew a blank. He never paid enough attention to the pain to give it an accurate description. He sighed before poking the flesh of his arm again. The pain came to him as a mixture burning and electrical, with it feeling more akin to an extreme version of pins and needles.

He grimaced and spoke.

"Pins and needles."

Sirona nodded, looking back at the book once more. Felix waited again, paying more attention to how his body felt. After a few seconds, Sirona called out.

"Dad, could you get me the herbs?"

"Which ones?"

"Um... Forktongue leaf."

The bigger dragon walked off again, supposedly to retrieve the requested plant. Sirona looked up at Felix and smiled, making him take a closer look at her.

"Sorry. That's my dad, Spyro."

Felix nodded as he took in Sirona's appearance. She was a darker purple than Spyro, and bore a yellow plated underbelly. Her horns pointed smoothly upward and were yellow colored, bearing small bands of extra keratin (at least that's what he assumed they were made of) along them. Her shoulders and forehead bore strange marks and her tail had a large yellow axe-shaped blade.

Spyro returned with a small basket of leaves, each of which looked eerily similar to a snake's tongue. He set down the basket near Sirona and she moved the basket towards Felix with her paw.

"Here. It'll help with the pain. You'll get really sleepy, but that's probably what you need right now."

Felix eyed the leaves carefully before reaching out and pulling one out of the basket. He didn't feel like he needed any more sleep, but he would rather sleep than deal with the intense pain.

"You can just chew it, if you want."

Sirona said, waiting for Felix to eat the leaf. He blew some air out of his nose before putting the leaf in his mouth. He bit into it, finding that it tasted like mint and had a texture similar to freshly cooked noodles.

He chewed adamantly, finding that he somewhat enjoyed the feeling of the leaf in his mouth. As he chewed, Sirona settled on the floor and watched quietly. Silence lasted for a small amount of time before one of the three spoke.

"So, how did you get here?"

Spyro, the bigger dragon, asked.

Felix shrugged before gripping the end of the leaf and ripping off the piece he had in his mouth.

After swallowing the leaf, he began to explain.


	4. Catching Up

In response to LoNeWoLf: Oh damn. What happened? You feeling better now?

In response to Sol1234: That honestly sounds awesome. I would love to read it.

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Sirona sighed as she looked at the human named Felix.

He was fast asleep, his left arm held delicately in a sling that they had fashioned after the Forktongue Leaf had done it's work. He had fallen asleep after that, as a side effect of the Leaf.

Felix himself was quite handsome, for a different species as well as being fairly dirty. His jet black hair was long, and his bangs hung over the sides of his face, on the right a little more so. The back of his hair was tied into a neat and elegant ponytail that looked as though Felix put his soul into making it.

His clothing was dirty and covered with grass, but was nonetheless wearable. It consisted of a dark green sweatshirt, brown leather gloves, a pair of black pants and black mud boots.

Sirona thanked Eclipsen for the books he sent her, otherwise she wouldn't have known the names for the clothing. In fact, most of her knowledge came from books that Eclipsen had sent her, with most of them either being written in other worlds or by Eclipsen himself.

Eclipsen was the last human to visit the Dragon Realms after having been catapulted through a previously sealed portal. During his first visit, Eclipsen had been a normal human, but was offered godhood by the god of the Eclipse. He took on the name and the title, and had returned to the Dragon Realms twice after his first visit, with each visit effecting the world in a major way in some form or another.

Currently, Eclipsen resided on the other side of the Dragon Realms, known as the Forgotten Realms, keeping an eye on Malefor's son Phyraor.

After Eclipsen's Elemental Blades had been taken from his grave, Sirona and her two siblings Bolt and Umbra set out to retrieve them. They had succeeded, and in turn discovered that Eclipsen had been brought back by the cumulative will of the Universe and sent to watch over Phyraor.

Phyraor himself was, physically, a young clone of Malefor as a last resort for the Dark Master to resurrect, but thanks to Eclipsen's watchful eye on Phyraor, the resurrection failed spectacularly. Since then, Phyraor had assumed the mantle of Dark Master and lead the Dark Armies to the Forgotten Realms to make a home for themselves rather than living in the shadows.

Eclipsen served as Phyroar's bodyguard and advisor, and they always kept in touch with Sirona via letters. Phyraor himself was a happy young drake, cheerfully leading the Dark Armies with a personality bright enough to keep the Forgotten Realms sunny for ages to come.

After Eclipsen had reclaimed his Elemental Blades and passed them back to Sirona, she and her father Spyro had left home to live somewhere separate from her mother. Cynder had quite loudly objected to Sirona's actions after they returned home, prompting Spyro to take Sirona to live in the cave they claimed as their new home.

They still kept in touch though, and they still loved each other dearly. Spyro frequently left to visit for Bolt and Umbra's wellbeing, and Sirona often visited as well. She had even attended Bolt's departure to a college in Warfang, and he still sent letters to Cynder and Spyro from his dorm.

Five years had passed since Eclipsen and Phyraor left and her move to a new home, making Sirona the ripe age of fourteen. She had gained an acceptable level of skill with the Elements of Fire and Poison and was familiar with Shadow, Fear, Ice and Wind, but she had yet to learn about Electricity and Earth.

Aether came to her sparingly, as it usually only manifested as short bursts of purple energy when she was under stress. She seemed to have more of aptitude for Light Aether, relieving her father's fears that she would wind up repeating Malefor's actions.

She envied Phyraor when it came to Aether, as he had already gained some measure of control over it. He had replicated many of Malefor's talents, including leading the Dark Armies through shadowy mind suggestion. He had even learned to summon the powerful Aether shield that even Spyro had trouble maintaining.

Now Sirona debeated wether or not to use the emergency message crystal and call for Eclipsen's help. She would hate to draw him away from Phyraor, as the young Dark Master was far from confident when it came to managing his Dark Kingdom.

She ultimately decided against it and simply retrieved some paper and a quill, writing quite a lengthy letter detailing the events of Felix's arrival and his explanation of how he got to the Dragon Realms. She also asked fairly strongly for advice, as she had no idea what to do in order to return Felix to his world.

By the time she was done, she had to throw two large logs into the fire in the cave and go out to hunt for dinner. She eventually found a lamb and dragged it back to the cave, shearing it before setting it on the cooking stand.

She then put the letter in an envelope and sealed it with the wax seal that Phyraor had given her in order for the letter to be given the highest of importance. The seal wasn't used very often. Actually, it had practically not been used since she received it, giving the letter a great amount of weight given that she hadn't used the seal yet.

Sirona tied the envelope to a large raven before setting it loose to deliver the letter. The raven crowed as it flew away, the letter tied to it's back securely.

After watching the raven fly into the distance Sirona went back to cooking the lamb. She turned the cooking stand a few times to keep it from burning on either side. The heat from the fire had turned the lamb a nice dark color, but not to the point of charring it.

Sirona sighed as she let go of the turning handle, settling down near Felix again.

How was she supposed to deal with another human?


	5. The Request

In response to LoNeWoLf: Ah, the teen years are always the most dangerous. I understand how it could be confusing, as I had the story based on those events planned out but never managed to write it down. Phyraor maintains a happy persona to differentiate hinself from his father, while Eclipsen sticks around as his advisor. They stay in contact with Sirona via letter just in case anything important happens, such as the arrival of Felix.

As a side note, this will be one of the stories where I will include a music track to accompany the reading. You know, to enhance the experience a bit.

The music will be cued in parenthesis and I will put the name of the song/songs at the start as well.

Today's track is called The Elemental Stars from the GBA game Golden Sun.

Enjoy the chapter!

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(Golden Sun - The Elemental Stars)

Felix opened his eyes in a peculiar place.

It wasn't the familiar blue painted ceiling of his home nor the mute gray of the cave he had last been. Instead, he stood in a brightly lit field of flowing green grass with a colossally large tree in the distance.

The light was so potent that it made the field look as if somebody had set the bloom effect on the highest setting. The grass was somehow unaffected by the light, still retaining it's lush green.

The huge tree in the distance was obviously ancient, with the roots so deeply entombed in the Earth that it formed a complex web of bark and wood. The roots themselves were thicker than a solid wall of concrete, bringing about worries that the tree would dry the land of it's nutrients.

The tree stood atop a large pyramid made of a pearly white stone that had long since been claimed it's roots. The stone was lined with cracks so large that they were visible even from the great distance Felix stood at. The structure looked ready to collapse at any moment, given the chance to.

A figure caught the corner of Felix's eye, drawing his gaze away from the massive tree. As he turned his head he laid his eyes upon one of the most beautiful sights he had ever seen.

A girl stood in the field with him, gazing at the tree with a sorrow in her eyes that was indescribably painful. Her long blonde hair fluttered in the wind, lit brilliantly by the bloom of the field. A short white dress clung to her slim frame, flittering lightly in an attempt to imitate her hair.

Her beautifully pale skin was lit up by the sun like she was a mirror, adding to her otherworldly charm.

She turned her head, looking at Felix sadly. Her emerald eyes were as lush and bright as the grass around them, but they were darkened by a pain that struck Felix's soul simply by looking at them.

"Beautiful, is it not?"

She asked, her lips moving ever so slightly. Had her voice not been so easily heard, it would've seemed like she had whispered into the wind.

Felix took a moment to register what exactly she was asking before it clicked in his head. He glanced at the tree and returned her stare. He smiled warmly at her, trying to even out the sorrow in her eyes.

"Yeah, I suppose it is."

The girl turned her body to face him, her hair moving in the wind with an elegance that was certainly not human. Her dress followed, billowing like a set of thin white certains.

"Ar'st thou seeking peace?"

Her voice reverberated again, asking another question that Felix barely registered. He thought about his recent experiences, finding them to be somewhat sporadic in nature. He kept his eyes locked on her as he answered, his voice coming out more firm than he intended.

"I suppose I could go for some peace and quiet."

The girl's lips curled into a sad smile, replacing the one that had drained off Felix's own visage. She smiled at him for a few seconds before looking back at the tree. Felix followed her gaze, noticing that the tree was somehow a little tilted despite it's earlier position.

"Thou'st world is beautiful, but a wounded one nonetheless. Thy destiny is uncertain in the face of my fate."

Felix gave the girl a questioning look. She didn't look away from the tree, but seemed to listen anyway.

"Your fate? Who are you?"

The girl did not answer, only focusing on the tree. After a long wait without a response, Felix also looked at the source of the girl's attention.

Suddenly, she was right in front of him. He jumped, taking a single step back. He looked down, finding that his left hand was outstretched even though he had not initially commanded the limb to move.

The girl held his hand gently, placing her hand atop his palm. A gentle warmth spread it's way into his arm, being a welcome sensation when compared to the soul shattering pain it had endured.

"My champion thou'st become. Banish the rot within my bosom and reawaken my home. The choice is yours, for thy future is yours by right."

Felix took the time to understand her words. Was she asking for help? Her speech was hard to understand, as he was more familiar with modern English.

The girl waited as Felix decoded her request, never taking her eyes away from his own. Her hand clasped his tightly with a pleading determination.

Felix found that he could not bring himself to refuse, despite the obvious danger that would follow his decision.

"What do I have to do?"

The girl's expression changed subtly from one of pleading to one of determination. She turned her face to the wind and lifted her hand from Felix's palm, pointing into the distance.

Felix followed her lead and saw a flying fortress that soared high in the air. A large tower sat atop the floating land, glowing with many yellow lines. A large yellow pillar of light streamed from the top of the tower, thinning out before fading into the sky.

"Sheek out my tower. Reignite the Earthen flame within."

Felix looked back at the girl, his face once again displaying his confusion. The girl met his gaze, her eyes locking with his own.

"How?"

The girl looked down and his eyes followed. She returned her hand to his own, but kept her hand lingering above his palm. A yellow ring of light shined into existence, dancing around his hand like the dying emberd of a flame.

Felix was so entranced by the light that he nearly missed the girl's next words.

"Thou see'eth a glimpse of the past. Thy present is very much different, and another may help thou along thy way. Taketh my authority and bend my flesh to your will, as it has already leapt to your aid."

The yellow ring of light collapsed into Felix's hand and the warmth intensified. A sudden surge of energy filled his body and he felt like he could run a marathon with minimum effort.

The girl looked up, once again making eye contact with Felix. He searched her eyes, finding a sense of importance behind their splendor.

"Mindeth thou pace, for the future of my body resteth in your hands. Should thou fail, then a fate much worse than death will befall thee."

A sudden cracking caught Felix's attention. He looked over to the side, watching in horror as the pyramid crumbled and the gargantuan tree came crashing down to Earth. The landscape shattered under the weight and the field began to fall away.

Felix began to panic, returning his gaze to the girl with worry on his face. The girl gave him another determined look and sqeezed his hand.

"Good luck, my champion."

With that, the land fell into darkness and Felix's vision went black.


	6. The First Event

The cave echoed as Felix groaned himself awake.

His arm was still full of a dull version of it's previous painful state, and the TV static that accompanied the pain had receeded almost completely. He could move it in the sling, but the limb still gave a warning shock if he moved too fast.

He sat up slowly, observing the cave quietly as to not wake the two dragons up if they were sleeping. Most forms of media had engrained in him an inherit sense of common knowledge, and some of that knowledge was very clear on not waking a dragon from it's slumber.

As to Felix's suspicions, Sirona slept peacefully in the corner of the cave, a medium sized bone sitting close by. The fire had gone out relatively recently as embers still glowed in the ashes. A cooking stand was situated above the ash pit and a well done lamb rested on the rack.

Felix felt his stomach rumble a bit, bringing about a few questions. How long had he slept? How long had it been since he was transported here? Was there even any edible food in this world?

The last question was a fairly easy one to answer, given the roasted lamb a few feet away, but the other two were legitimate querys. Beyond his initial transport and the encounter with the armored creature his memories were quite hazy.

Felix carefully got up from the floor, making sure that his boots didn't make too much noise and paying attention to his arm as he he moved. He walked over to the cooking stand, inspecting the meat of the lamb carefully.

The lamb was cold, having been cooked some time ago. It was still fresh though and the smell stirred a loud growl from Felix's stomach. He quickly glanced at Sirona, who simply readjusted her position before going back to sleep.

He let out a silent sigh of relief before reaching forward. He gently tore away a piece of the meat and took a careful bite, tasting the food thoroughly. After deeming the lamb edible, he put the rest of the piece in his mouth and ate.

He tore off a few more sizeable peices of lamb before moving to what he assumed to be the opening of the cave. They lived quite deep into the cave guessing from the fifteen minute walk that it took to catch a glimpse of light.

Felix had to climb a small ledge in order to reach the opening of the cave proper, finally laying his eyes on a flood of bright yellow sunlight. As he stepped out of the cave a powerful breeze greeted him, making his clothes move slightly in the wake of the airy movement.

He gazed at a large field not unlike the one he had dreamt of, but this one had key differences. The field in his dream was flat, but this one had rolling hills in the distance. Instead of a large tree in the distance, there was what looked to be a small apple tree sitting atop one of the hills.

Felix stepped forward, feeling the wind on his back. The grass was a lush green and fluttered in the wind the same way it did in his dream. The landscape was no longer a flush of bloom effect, instead being a normal shade combination of blue sky and green grass.

Felix trotted down a hill towards the apple tree, covering a relatively small dip before climbing the hill the tree sat on. The hill was not steep but large, making the trip lengthy but not tiring. Felix flexed his muscles, feeling the relief of physical activity after such a long time being stationary.

He reached the top of the hill after a few minutes of walking, observing the true range of what could only be described as a prairie. Rolling hills covered what must've been miles of land with no notable landmarks for great distances.

Felix looked around, trying to determine which cardinal direction was which. In the process he spotted a peculiar sight. To the right of where he initially looked was a large stretch of forest that spanned a good fourth of the overall expanse that made up the prairie.

Beyond the forest was a blurry haze, as Felix had always had trouble seeing from great distances. As far as he could tell, the forest ended somewhere and stretched out into more grassland. To the right of the forest was a large mountain that looked to be leagues taller than Mount Everest.

The mountain was not truly a mountain, but looked to be a cooling volcano that had just stopped erupting. The land around the volcano was charred and black, but seemed to bear small plants around the edges.

Farther to the right of the mountain were two more mountains. Following the same vein as the cooling volcano, the two geological landmarks seemed to stretch much higher than the mountains Felix was familiar with. Fluffy snow dotted the peaks of the two steep formations and a valley was hidden between the two mountains.

Felix turned his attention to the apple tree, having decided that he could sightsee more later. The tree bore fruit similar to apples, but they were bigger and looked to be more similar to raspberries than apples.

Felix's stomach was not quite full, having left enough room for another few bites of food. He shrugged and figured that there was only one way to find out of the tree produced something flavorful.

He reached out and picked one of the fruits, finding that the berry-like object was big enough to fit in his palm. He gave it a squeeze, watching as the many bulbs that made up the fruit stretch in response to the pressure.

He slowly lifted the fruit to his mouth and bit down on the side of it. He chewed carefully, tasting the fruit to the best of his abilities. It was a strange rubbery texture, but was sweet and tangy. He likened the taste to be not far off from a red Starburst candy.

He took another bite as he sat down next to the tree, leaning into the bark of the plant and watching as the landscape moved in the wake of the wind.

As he sat, Felix mulled over his strange predicament. He had been catapulted from his home and into one where dragons existed, as well as strange burnt skeleton knights.

Deep within him, something was on the verge of panic. What if he couldn't get home? How would his family react to his disappearance? Would his mother and sister be able to move on? How long would it take for them to file for his disappearance? Would the police even look for him?

Felix bit into the fruit again, this time putting some extra aggression into the action. To be perfectly honest, be could live with his current situation. He hadn't been extremely attached to his family and they were well off anyway. His leaving wouldn't effect them financially at all, and his mother could care less.

It was really his mother that had driven Felix to develop his uncaring attitude towards his emotions. After years of not receiving the familial affection he had simply detatched from that part of himself. His sister did not help the matter, as her version of affection consisted of annoying him to no end. His emotional stunting rendered Felix unable to tell if Jenna even cared for him, let alone if she liked him.

Felix sighed, once again locking away what was left of his emotions. He largely ingored them anyway, given that they led to nothing but badly thought out decisions. He took one last bite from the fruit before tossing it into one of the many dips that made up the rolling hills.

He stood slowly, not even bothering to brush himself of the grime that had already soaked into his clothing. His movements were slow as to not agitate his arm, but he began to walk back to the cave nonetheless.

The cave itself was shaped like a naturally created opening into the ground, having a large hill above the actual ceiling of the cave.

As Felix slowly climbed down the hill, a green fleck of light caught his eye. He stopped for a moment, blinking to clear his vision of the black spot that resulted from the bright flash of light. He gazed towards the dip that was before the cave, spotting a familiarly strange sight.

A large green crystal jutted from the Earth not far from the opening of the cave. Felix swore that it hadn't been there before he had left, and he surely was not gone long enough for a gem of the crystals size to spontaneously grow out of the dirt.

Felix carefully moved towards the gem, making sure that he was more than a foot away as he inspected it. He circled around the green formation, noticing that the ground around it looked as if it had rocketed out of the depths.

He continued to circle around the green crystal, barely noticing as he walked straight into Sirona. They both stumbled and the sling on Felix's arm came undone. His arm fell limply and he braced himself for an agonizing amount of pain.

But it never came.

"I'm sorry! Are you alright?"

Sirona asked, a glint of guilt in her eyes. Felix gripped his arm and moved his wrist around experimentally. No pain came from the movement, and he was adamant that his arm had ached when he was around the strange fruit tree.

"Yes..."

He muttered with an edge of confusion. He glanced at the gem suspiciously, piecing together a small theory. Sirona followed his eyes before also coming to the same conclusion.

"You said you were sent here by a gem, right?"

"...I did..."

Sirona looked at Felix's arm carefully before shifting her gaze back to the green gem. She inched forward and sniffed at the base of the crystal, circling it like Felix had a few moments before. She stopped suddenly, peeking over the top of the gem.

"Try touching it."

Felix gave Sirona a look of disbelief. He had explained to her that the purple gem that had sent him here instilled a small fear of crystals in him due to the large amount of pain that followed his transport. Sirona returned the look with one of pleading.

"Trust me."

She said, her head dropping a bit so that it was obscured by the strangely clouded crystal. Felix rubbed his arm with his thumb, sharpening his senses to pick up any trace of pain. Nothing came to him though, itching his suspicions.

After a minute of wait, he furrowed his brows and stepped forward. The crystal began to gleam in the light as he stepped forward, somehow reflecting more sunlight in response to his presence. He extended his hand nervously, not bothering to control the trembling in his fingers.

His arm began to feel warm as he got closer, reminding him heavily of the warmth that he felt in the dream. The gem began to sing quietly as Felix's hand drew closer, the small offshoots of crystal quaking gently.

Just before his fingers made contact with the gem, five small green wisps of energy stretched out to meet the tips of his fingers. A voice echoed in the back of his mind, filling his entire body with a warmth even more homely than the one in the dream.

_My champion thou'st become..._

Felix watched in surprise as his hand magnetized to the gem and the green color began to drain away from it. The color was drawn towards his hand, leaving an inky black color where the green used to be.

Not even forty seconds after the color had started to draw towards Felix's body did he feel a great energy well up within him. The warmth changed from a gentle one to one that felt powerful and world changing. The yellowish brown energy from the dream coated his hand as the color of the gem drained into his body.

The Earth around them shivered as the crystal blackened and the energy on Felix's hand spread to his entire body. He could only watch as the crystal lost it's color completely, leaving behind a dead gem with an abyssal black tint to it's surface.

The ground stopped quaking as Felix pulled his hand from the gem. As the appendage left it's surface the crystal crumbled into a fine black dust, leaving behind little trace of the luster that it once bore.

Felix gazed at his hand in wonder, beholding the golden-yellow energy that danced across his fingertips. The energy faded as quickly as it had come, leaving behind a feeling of permanent empowerment in Felix's body.

Sirona looked up from the dust of the gem in amazement before her eyes locked onto the area around Felix's boots.

"Look!"

He quickly followed her gaze, witnessing the grass grow around his feet at a pace that was certainly not physically possible. The effect spread at least four feet around him and thinned out at the edge of said distance.

Felix looked to Sirona, a pleading expression on his face. Sirona returned it with a gaze of amazement and underlying wisdom.

"We need to get you to Warfang."


	7. Beginnings of an Adventure

Here you go, another chapter. Sorry for the wait, I've been kind of losing motivation recently.

LoNeWoLf: Oh, I'm sorry you had to deal with that. I wasn't going for a really bad past exactly, just slightly troubled. I most likely won't do it right at first, thanks to my inexperience with that kind of upbringing. No fanboying here though. Dragons are special, but they aren't exactly uncommon in this setting.

Sol1234: Sorry to disappoint you, but my characters don't transform all that often.

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"Wait, what is Warfang?"

Felix asked as he stumbled around the cave, trying to follow the swiftly moving Sirona and failing spectacularly. The various stones that Felix remembered being solid and rooted into the cave were now breaking and rolling about around his feet, making Felix struggle to keep his balance without the rocks sending him back first into the ground.

Felix couldn't manage to keep his eyes on Sirona, as she seemed to flow around the cave like water and disappeared around corners with ease. Her dark color also helped her camouflage with the shadows, making it even more difficult to follow her.

Felix stumbled as he rounded a corner and entered the main area of the cave, finding that Sirona was digging through large bag to the right of the room. He briskly walked up behind Sirona, stopping to look over her shoulder.

Before he was able to see anything, Sirona wheeled around and tossed something at Felix, which he caught awkwardly. As he corrected the object in his hand Sirona continued to rummage through the bag. Felix looked at the object, finding it to be a rolled up scroll of parchment that was sealed with a red string.

Sirona lifted her beak from the bag, speaking over her shoulder.

"That's a map of our world, the Dragon Realms. Warfang is a huge city a long way away from here. If you were a dragon we could just fly, but we have to find another route for now."

Felix untied the string, allowing the paper to unroll itself. There was just enough light in the cave to see what was on the map, but not enough to read the words. It depicted a large expanse of land, with a huge area of forest and a ringed section taking up the middle of the map. To the right of the map was another ring with what looked to be a volcano in the middle.

Felix rolled the paper back up, deciding that he could look at it in more detail when he was in a brighter environment. He looked back at Sirona, who tugged a large piece of cloth from the bag and set it on a pile of other fabrics.

After pulling a small leather belt from the bag, Sirona lifted the fabrics and set them on her back.

"Come on. We need to get ready to travel."

She said as she walked past Felix, expertly disappearing back into the cave passageway. Felix sighed before following, walking calmly though the stone paths. He had no idea what Sirona was talking about, and he was not looking forward to travelling to a city full of what he assumed to be more dragons. For all he knew, they would dissect him for study or lock him up to keep the dragon masses from panicking.

Felix emerged from the cave a few minutes later, gazing around the green fields for any sign of Sirona. He didn't have to look hard, as she was standing in the clearing directly in front of the cave with the pile of fabrics sitting neatly next to her.

She waited patiently as Felix approached, watching as the grass behind him grew with each step he took. A golden light was still encasing him, as if the energy of the crystal was spilling out of Felix's body like a bowl that was being slowly overfilled.

Felix stopped a few feet away, staring between Sirona and the pile of fabric that was neatly folded next to her. She smiled at the human, giving some measure of a counterpart to Felix's cold scowl.

"Why are we going to Warfang?"

Felix asked, slightly startling Sirona. He hadn't spoken much since he had arrived, and even his explanation of being transported had been somewhat quiet and muted. Sirona looked down at the ground, watching as the grass visibly grew around Felix's boots.

Sirona returned her gaze upwards, locking eyes with Felix. As she looked into them, Sirona noticed that Felix's brown eyes had thin golden rings around the outer layers of his irises, giving them an unsettling and otherworldly quality that she couldn't quite explain.

"We're going because you're not the first human to arrive here."

Felix nodded, his head dipping downwards as he finished the gesture. He watched as the grass grew around him, not even taking a minute to reach the ankle of his boots.

"...Who was the first?..."

Felix asked, his eyes still locked on to the the top of his boots. Sirona breathed lightly as she gently sat down, allowing her tail to curl and move about the ground.

"His name is Eclipsen. He... He is far away from here."

Felix nodded again, slipping his hands into the pocket of his sweatshirt. Sirona watched him patiently, her tail moving about slowly. The wind blew by quietly, making the pile of fabrics move slightly and the grass wave in rhythm.

Felix was at a loss. He didn't know what exactly he was being pulled into, or wether or not he should fight against it.

"What happened to him?..."

"You mean Eclipsen? He... Is alive. And well, as far as I know."

"No... I meant-"

"I know what you meant. He was treated like a citizen in Warfang. Everyone there is equal. If anything has changed, I will know."

"So why?"

Sirona diverted her eyes downward.

"I want to have another adventure."

"Another?..."

"I... Traveled with Eclipsen once. It was so much fun. I want to have that chance again. And, in my own experience, your existence is really important to the Dragon Realms. Humans usually are special in one way or another."

Felix sighed. So Sirona wanted to have an adventure? He never really liked travel. He wanted to stay in one place. To have a home. Not to mention he now had a duty. One that he assumed had a time limit.

He removed his hand from his pocket, inspecting the dirt and stains on his glove. He sighed.

"I will go to Warfang."

Sirona allowed herself a smile. She closed her eyes, feeling the warmth of relief wash over her body. Felix simply looked at his hand, processing the decision he had just made.

"Thank you."

Sirona whispered, just loud enough for it to carry on the wind and meet Felix's ears. He nodded slowly, tearing his eyes away from his glove and meeting the gaze of the purple dragoness. They held eye contact for a few seconds, the feeling on the air one of relative understanding.

"How do we get there?"

Felix asked, drawing the map from his pocket and holding it out. Sirona maintained her smile as she stood and moved to the right.

"I'll handle that. You go change and take a bath. There's a clean pool of water just past that hill."

Sirona said, using her head to gesture to the fabrics and the hill to the left. Felix glanced between the two before sighing and stepping forward. He leaned down and lifted the fabrics from the ground, tucking them underneath his now painless left arm and moving to climb the hill.

"Hey, uh... Leave the map."

Felix stopped in his tracks, dipping his head downward in embarrassment. Sirona giggled from behind him and watched as he padded back over and gave her the map, which she held with her mouth. Felix then turned around and resumed his trek to the top of the hill.


	8. Setting out and The Second Encounter

Here you go people! And extra long chapter to make up for the recent inactivity.

LoNeWoLf: Oh wow, that is quite the coincidence. I've always liked the idea of a chracter having weirdly colored eyes, so I guess we have something in common.

Fellow Reader: Glad you like it! I do plan on posting a couple chapters before I have to work on my other stories, so don't worry.

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Felix stood quietly on a rocky outcropping near the pool of water Sirona had mentioned. He had already finished bathing, but now he was taking his time looking at the cloth pile Sirona had given him, which were evidently a set of hand-made (or was it claw-made?) clothes.

He stood in nothing but his underwear, which was slightly embarrassing despite the fact that no-one was around. The wind was cool and made his hair blow freely, especially after he had untied it from the ponytail it was normally kept in.

Felix looked downward at the clothes. They were the normal image of old fantasy clothing, with most of it being made of cloth or leather. They consisted of a green tunic with a pattern of orange that looked to take inspiration from Mayan or Aztec culture, a brown long-sleeve undershirt, a pair of large cloth gloves that were the same color as the undershirt and a pair of greyish trousers.

A pair of boots and a small cape sat to the side, with the folded up cape fluttering lightly in the breeze. The boots were almost knee high and bore the same Mayan style orange pattern that the tunic had. The cape was a darker shade of green than the tunic, and had the same shade of orange on the inside. A green cloth belt was included in the ensemble, most likely in case the tousers didn't fit.

Felix sighed. It was a strange coincidence that the clothes bore his favorite color, as well as his second favorite. He found it slightly creepy, to be honest. He wouldn't question Sirona about it, for fear of upsetting her and accidently insulting her sense of style.

He leaned down, gently picking up the clothing. The trousers were surprisingly comfortable and fit well, and Felix decided to tie the green cloth belt around his waist to make it extra secure and for the look. The undershirt was a little big on him, making him re-tie the belt to keep the undershirt in place. The tunic felt similar to a second sleeved shirt, and was heavier than the undershirt.

The gloves slipped on with almost no effort and they fit around the undershirt sleeves well. He slipped on the boots next, tying the brown cloth that worked as shoelaces. Next, Felix tied the cape around his collar. It acted as both a cape and as a scarf, which felt nice on his neck.

He preferred long coats, to be honest. Felix found them to be less likely caught on things and therefore less tiring and safer.

After adjusting the ensemble to his liking, Felix tied his hair back into it's usual ponytail. The red string that he used fluttered lightly as he worked with it, making it a little harder than usual to tame his unruly black locks. After properly securing the string, Felix stretched and took the first steps back toward the cave opening.

As he walked, he took the time to admire the scenery. At the top of the hill he had traversed to get to the pond, the twin mountains in distance looked even bigger, with the various snow-covered slopes gleaming slightly in the sunlight. The cooling volcano in the distance still smoked, with black ash spreading it's way into the sky. From the distance, Felix could see small pools of still hot lava dotted the land around the volcano. The ring around the burnt land bore grass that was a darker green than the grass around the cave opening.

Felix lamented the fact that he had left his phone home. It would have come in handy, but he assumed that the world he had been sent to did not have internet connection.

As he descended the other side of the hill, Felix spotted Sirona and Spyro inspecting the rolled out map, seemingly having a conversation. He couldn't hear most of it, as he was more than a few feet away. The rest of the walk took a while, with the hill near the pool of water being quite large.

Felix caught some of the conversation between the father and daughter as he reached the bottom of the hill and he strained his ears to listen to what they were saying.

"The best and quickest route would be through the Catacombs, but a lot of Malefor's old minions are holed up down there. It's not safe."

"Dad, I can do this. You know I can. Plus I have Felix with me."

Said human cleared his throat, drawing the two away from their conversation. Spyro stopped cranning his neck to look at the map and greeted Felix with a warm smile, seemingly content to leave their earlier talk behind.

"Felix! Sirona told me you two are heading to Warfang."

Spyro said as he reached over and grabbed something with his teeth. After it came into view, Felix realised it to be a sword and it's scabbard. He gazed at the weapon curiously, wondering how such a human construct came to be in the hands of a Dragon.

"Indeed."

Felix responded absent-mindedly, more focused on the weapon. Spyro easily noticed the human's gaze, setting down the sword by the map.

"Here, take this. It's somewhat old and it hasn't been cared for all that much, but it should help you along. From what I've heard from Sirona, you probably won't need it later on, but better to be safe."

Felix gave a questioning look to the older purple dragon, who offered a nod in return. The human stepped forward and leaned down, picking the sword off the ground with care. The scabbard of the weapon was made of the same leather that the boots of his outfit were and a shoulder strap was securely connected to it with metal buttons.

He pulled the blade from it's sheath, watching as the metal slipped from the leather smoothly. The sword itself was a one-handed blade, with a T-shaped guard and black leather for the the grip. The pommel was a simple metal circle with a dark green gem embedded within and the blade itself was double edged, bearing a few rust spots that could be cleaned with a proper wiping down.

He gave the sword a few test swings. Once with minimal effort, and another with the utmost of his strength. The weapon was nicely balanced and it wasn't heavy either, making for the perfect short distance defense and attack tool.

Felix sheathed the sword and moved to take off his cape, with Spyro offering to hold the cloth with his horn like an improvised hat rack. Felix brought the shoulder strap around his body, slipping it through the cloth belt and securing it on his shoulder. After adjusting the strap, Felix retook his cape and donned it again.

Sirona watched the entire thing with childlike joy in her eyes, which Felix didn't fail to notice. He looked down at her, adjusting the shoulder strap once more.

"Does it look... Nice?"

"You look amazing. Like one of the humans in the children's stories!"

Felix raised an eyebrow, quickly looking to Spyro who nodded, confirming that the statement was a compliment. The human looked back at the young dragon and gave a smile.

"Thank you."

The three sat in realtive silence for a moment before Spyro gave another smile and stepped towards the map, which was still layed out on the grass.

"Well, I guess I shouldn't keep you two waiting."

Spyro said as he rolled up the map with his nose and handed it to Sirona. She gripped the map in her mouth and turned around, slipping it into a pocket in a leather harness that Felix assumed was for travel. Sirona then lifted the harness onto her back.

Sirona looked up at Felix with pleading eyes.

"Um, could you help me? I don't exactly have hands."

Felix looked down, realising that the harness had buckles which would most likely he impossible for a dragon to clasp without help. He bent down, giving the buckle a quick tug.

"Too tight?"

"No, that's fine."

He linked the metal piece through the buckle with a nod, securing the harness in place. Felix stood back up and took a step back, watching as Sirona bit at a piece of the harness and adjusted it on her back, so that from what Felix could tell, she could fly with it on without difficulty or discomfort.

Spyro gave a look to Sirona, who met her father's gaze with determination in her eyes.

"You know your mother is going to kill me for letting you go, right?"

"I take responsibility, dad."

"Good. Now, you know where the entrance to the Catacombs is, right?"

"Just a little ways from Eclipsen's ex-grave."

"Good."

Spyro looked up from his daughter, locking eyes with Felix who was content to simply watch the scene. Behind Spyro's gaze was a father's warning, one that Felix was familiar with.

"Take good care of her."

Felix nodded with vigor, returning Spyro's intensity with determination. Spyro smiled, accepting Felix's answer and turning to Siorna.

"Get going, before I change my mind."

Siorna gave a smile to Felix, who returned it with a nod.

Sirona motioned her head towards the forest, taking the first steps toward it.

"It's this way."

Felix gave a nod and followed, feeling the weight of the sword at his side and trying to get used to it.

-Transition-

The trek to the forest didn't take long, with the edge of the woods only being only half a block away. Or at least what a block would be in Felix's world.

"Why not just walk through the forest?"

Felix asked as he walked next to Siorna. The idea was not appealing to him personally, after his encounter with the charred creature. Sirona glanced at Felix, noticing that his eyes were slightly crinkled, most likely due to his discomfort in being in the forest where he was attacked.

"Because there are still tribes of cursed apes that would attack us. And that creature you talked about could still be around."

Felix grimaced. One encounter was more than enough for him. He might have better chances with the sword, but he'd rather not risk fighting the creature. He barely had any training with swords. If not for Jenna dragging him to her fencing classes he wouldn't even know how to hold it.

He took the time to gaze around the forest, also doubling as watching for any threats or any signs of the creature.

The forest was a quiet place, with the occasional squirrel-like creature darting up and tree and disappearing into the canopy. The wind that was easily felt near the cave was now filtered out by the trees, giving the air the slight scent of fresh leaves and the sound of treetops blowing in the wind. The grass around the forest was slightly deeper green, though Felix assumed he was seeing it as a darker green due to the shadows of the treetops.

The trees themselves seemed the same as in his world, but they were much thicker and looked to be more akin to rainforest trees, the type that grew to be thousands of years old.

Felix felt his curiosity begin to burn. He didn't like nature by any means, but this world's flora and fauna appeared to be radically different from his own while also bearing a few similarities that were, for all intents and purposes, very suspicious. How could lamb exist in a world where squirrels had evolved to be very different in appearance from his own world's squirrels?

"Sirona?"

Felix said, prompting the young dragoness to look at him from the corner of her eye.

"Yeah?"

"How different is your world from mine?"

"I have no idea. I've never been to your world, and you've only been here for two days at the most. It's question that would be better answered by Eclipsen."

"Another question. You mentioned that Eclipsen had a grave."

"You're wondering how he's alive when he had a grave?"

"Mhmm."

Sirona dipped her head downward in thought, taking a moment to most likely find the words to explain. Meanwhile Felix looked upwards, managing to spot a red bird pecking it's way into a tree. The bird looked radically different from a Woodpecker, with the most obvious difference being it was much larger and it bore bladed feathers.

"Eclipsen had a hard time explaining it too."

Felix snapped out of his observation, redirecting his gaze towards Sirona.

"Before you arrived here, Eclipsen enslisted my dad to help him defeat a very old evil that was breaking free from it's prison. At the end of the journey, Eclipsen had to disperse all of the energy he collected. He exploded, but then reformed from the energy he had been destroyed by."

Felix raised an eyebrow. What kind of energy could reform a human being? From supposedly no remains as well.

"What is this energy?"

He asked. Sirona hummed, directing her eyes elsewhere in an attempt to find a way to explain it.

"You know how dragons can breath fire?"

"Mhmm."

"Well, dragons can breath more than fire. There's Earth, Ice, Electricity and Fire. But there's an extra Element that Purple Dragons like me and my dad can use. It's called Aether."

"Aether?"

"Yeah. It's what our world is made from. Well, more like it's what keeps everything tied together. Without it, the world and the very universe would unravel."

Felix nodded in understanding. This Aether energy was unlike anything he had ever heard of, and a lot more powerful too. If this kind of energy was floating around, how was it not being exploited yet?

"Why isn't Aether used by everyone?"

"That's a question that was answered a long time ago."

The human raised his eyebrow once more. Sirona noticed and after a moment of silence, decided to oblige him.

"A very long time ago, Humans did exist in the Dragon Realms. They could use the elements as well, even Aether. They couldn't wield Aether as much as my dad or even I can though, so they took one human and poured a lot of Aether into her. As a result, she could commune with the Universe itself."

Felix directed his eyes toward the ground. The universe had a will in this world? That explained concepts like Karma and how reality kept itself together. He was always interested in the idea that celestial bodies had wills of their own, but he never thought it was possible.

"The process the Humans were using was apparently very painful, and the woman they were experimenting on ended up calling for help to release herself from the pain. Aether, essentially the force that allows the will of the Universe to act, was being abused as well as causing harm, so the Universe tore the woman's soul away from her body and used the Aether to spread a deadly gas that killed most of the Humans. It even ate away at their corpses until not even bones remained."

Felix nodded. It made sense that the Universe would use the very thing the ancient Humans were trying to tame to kill them. It was one big lesson about the folly of hubris and the ancient civilisation experienced it firsthand. That raised a question though. If the woman had lost her soul, where did it go?

"Where did the woman's soul go?"

Felix said out loud unconsciously.

"It became one with the will of the Universe."

The human snapped out of his thoughts, now interested in the answer to his question. Sirona continued to explain, now excited that someone was interested in the story she was telling.

"Her soul eventually molded into a being called the Guardian, and the Guardian ended up manifesting near the Earth's core. The old evil that was imprisoned took an interest in the Guardian and the remaining Humans, who had built a city under the Earth around the Guardian. The evil took hold of the Guardian and twisted it, using it to influence the Humans and recruit them to it's cause in the form of a cult. Eventually the evil got tired of the remaining Humans questioning it, and twisted the Guardian and the Aether around it so much that the Humans mutated and began to kill each other."

Felix frowned. That was dark. Even darker than some of the books that he had read during his goth phase a few years before. This evil was evidently not something to be messed with.

"Eclipsen eventually stumbled on the Human city while he and my dad were on the quest to destroy the evil, and he ended up killing the Guardian. Lukily, we found the woman's body beforehand and her soul was somehow still intact, so we were able to revive her."

Sirona continued, still invested in telling the story. Felix listened intently, slowly connecting the dots as the dragoness spoke.

"The woman was still deeply connected to the Aether, so her experience also caught the attention of the Universe itself. Eclipsen, having been the one to free the Woman's soul, became a point of interest to the Universe, which eventually culminated in Eclipsen absorbing a great amount of Aether and using it to drag the evil into a vortex and destroy it. In the end, the remaining Aether in Eclipsen's body exploded and revitalized the Earth. This forest grew where Eclipsen dispersed the Aether, and we made the stone where he died his grave."

Felix nodded, now understanding the rest of the story. Somewhat, anyway. That's when he noticed that the forest seemed much more familar, with even the patterns of grass triggering deja vu in his mind.

It wasn't long before they came to the stone that Felix had arrived at, with Sirona looking around the clearing for any signs of the creature.

Meanwhile, Felix stared at the large stone spike that had erupted from the Earth. The black viscous liquid that the creature had left behind was now hard and more like tar than blood. Drops of the liquid had even encased the grass where it fell, killing the grass and poisoning the grass around it.

Felix bent down to get a closer look at where the earthen spike had erupted from, reaching out to touch it. The voice filled his mind once more, drawing out the familiar warmth in his body.

_Bend my flesh to your will, as it has already leapt to your aid..._

Felix felt a sting cut through his temple and he reached up to nurse it with his hand. At the same time, a familiar sound made it's way to his ears.

The sound of the ragged breathing of the creature quickly brought both Felix and Sirona to attention, scanning the forest for the creature's glowing purple eyes. Felix was the first to catch a glimpse of it's gaze, once again appearing from behind the stone.

The creature stumbled into the clearing once more, it's hand grasping the stone to support it's charred and broken body. Felix felt his legs lock up as the creature reached down for it's sword. He couldn't fight this thing. Courage simply wasn't his forte. Sirona leapt to Felix's side, hissing in a manner not unlike a snake or other reptile.

"Felix, your sword!"

He couldn't. His legs were frozen, and so were his arms. The most he could do was quake in his boots. The sight of the creature made his skin crawl, and it's jagged movements made his stomach churn. He bit down the urge to vomit, but the taste of copper remained in his mouth.

"Felix!"

Sirona called, looking up pleadingly only to see the look of terror on the human's face. His eyes were that of a scared child, one that was confronting the boogeyman in the shadows with no guarantee that he was safe. Sirona felt rage build up within her.

This man who had remained stoic and quiet ever since she met him was now shivering like an animal in the rain. This human who had withstood incredible pain with little more than a wince every so often. The one who had drained an energy crystal of it's power and made the world grow around him.

Sirona directed her rage towards the creature who reached down for it's rusty sword. She opened her mouth and let loose a stream of pure Wind, knocking the creature from it's feet and onto its back. The armor clanked loudly as the creature collided with the Earth, a loud moan escaping it's mouth.

Sirona redirected her rage once more, this time towards Felix himself.

"Felix, come on! We won't be able to run if you keep standing there!"

Felix only registered the words as a far off sound, more focused on the downed creature than the dragoness' speech. The soft voice resonated in his head once more, this time bringing the empowering warmth instead of the soft warmth.

_Should thou fail, then a fate much worse than death shall befall thee..._

The words snapped Felix from his stupor, his eyesight and hearing sharpening once more. Sirona's voice reached him, as well as the anger in it.

"Snap out of it! That thing is getting up!"

Felix kept his eyes trained on the creature, watching as it hefted itself from the ground. He noticed that the wound from the last encounter was not healed, but wider and rotting with bugs and insect larvae feasting away at it.

A thought struck him.

"Sirona! Aim your fire at it's wound!"

Felix shouted as he found the strength to reach over with his left hand and draw the sword at his side. As his palm met the grip, Felix felt as though the sword was encouraging him to fight, to defend himself and push through.

Sirona nodded, understanding the strategy as the creature leapt forward with more ferocity and speed than it's body should've had. Felix was quick to react, bringing his sword to a ready stance. Sirona stepped to the left, circling around Felix's back and preparing to launch a blast of fire.

The creature brought it's sword upward, swinging it down in an attempt to cleave Felix in half. The young man stepped to the right, easily dodging the swing. He reared back and plunged his sword into the creature's side, drawing out a squelching sound from the creature's flesh and a howl from the creature itself.

Sirona opened her mouth, loosing a stream of fire that hit it's mark with expert precision. The creature's chest caught like old and dry matches, with the maggots and insects squealing and dropping out of the creature to burn on the ground.

Felix ripped his sword out of the creature, barely dodging as it swung it's sword at him. He jumped a few steps back, feeling the empowering warmth flow into his left hand. He felt the urge to leap forwards and hack away at the creature, but he held his ground and waited for it to come to him.

The creature did exactly as expected, dashing forward and swinging to the right. Felix ducked under the blade, kicking the creature in the knee. In a bizarre feat of what Felix would describe as weakness on the creature's part, the black charred knee gave way, breaking backwards and drawing another howl from it.

Felix rose from the ground, lifting his sword upward and bringing it crashing down on the creature's neck. A golden light encased the blade as it fell, allowing it to cleave through the creature as if it was butter. It gave a howl as the blade breached it's armor and cut away at it's insides.

Not a second later, the creature's glowing purple eyes faded and it fell backward limply. It hit the ground with a sickening crunch, whatever dark magic holding it together having dispersed and reduced the charred body to a broken pile of bones, skin and armor.

Felix and Sirona stared blankly at the body, still trying to find a sign that it was alive. The fire burning in the creatures chest soon spread to the rest of it's body, burning away what remained of it.

Felix let out and exasperated breath, stumbling into a nearby tree and sliding down it. His sword fell to the ground, the blade now covered in the black viscous liquid that was the creature's blood.

Felix shivered, the empowering warmth in his body gone and the pain in his left arm returning.


	9. Third Encounter and Retreat

LoNeWoLf: Dude, you almost made me spit out my coffee reading that.

Sol1234: Sounds interesting! I'd love to see how it turns out!

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"Felix! Are you alright?!"

Sirona's voice reached Felix clearly, but he was more focused on the returning pain in his arm. It was no more than an ache, but it was definitely there. The rest of his body felt cold and drained, a stark change from the empowering warmth that had been there seconds before.

Felix trained his eyes on the corpse of the creature, which was now being consumed by the flames that Sirona had sent it's way. Sirona herself was circling around the creature's remains, watching as it was slowly turned to ash.

Sirona redirected her attention back to Felix, who was busy trying to find the strength to stand. His body shivered as he levered himself up from the tree he had collapsed against. His sword sat quietly on the grass, the black substance that was the creature's blood already solidifying and encasing the blade.

Sirona took a worried step forward as Felix faltered in his movements, nearly sliding back down the tree.

"What's wrong?"

She asked pleadingly. Her words managed to grab Felix's attention, drawing his eyes away from the burning creature and into Sirona's worried gaze. The human gave a shiver before gripping his left arm. The ache intensified under the pressure, making Felix wince.

Sirona easily determined the source of the problem, craning her neck and opening one of the pockets in her leather harness. She pulled a green gem shard from the pocket, stepping forward and offering it to her companion.

"Here, try this."

She said around the shard in her mouth. Felix looked at the shard before reaching out and taking it. The shard began to drain of it's color as soon as it met his palm, soothing the ache in his arm and dispelling some of the chill in his body.

While Felix dealt with the strange function his body was executing, Sirona lifted his sword from the ground by the handle, ignoring the toxic smelling substance on the blade.

Felix sighed wearily as the chill in his body began to melt away, shaking his entire frame in an effort to rid himself of the rest of it. He quickly regained his bearings, gazing about the forest vigilantly for any sign of further danger. After a quick look around, he graciously took his sword from Sirona.

Siorna quickly looked to the right side of the forest.

"The Catacombs are that way. Come on, before we learn if there are more of those things."

She said before taking off in a run. Felix followed suit, not bothering to sheathe his sword. He kept a hard grip on it though, making sure that it wasn't in the path of anything that might catch it or in a position to stab him if he fell.

The forest seemed to snarl as the two ran, with the sounds of growling animals and movements through the underbrush filling the air with a feeling of intense tension. Felix nervously kept scanning the forest for more signs of danger, his mind still dealing with the aftermath of the trauma he had just endured.

They ran for a few minutes, with the sounds of the angry forest only seeming to grow louder. Various birds and other animals screeched and hissed at the two as they sprinted through the forest, with even the light from the sun dimming as they went deeper. Felix felt more than unwelcome in the forest now, finding that his curiousity was practically nonexistent when the entirety of the things he found interesting sending out clear messages of anger.

Sirona panted in front of him, her movements getting more sluggish as she kept up her sprint. She wished she could fly, but that would leave Felix running alone through the forest.

"It should be just up ahead!"

She shouted. In an act that both of them considered as the God's mercy, the object of their quest appeared on the edge of their vision. The large yellow stone gateway that comprised the Catacombs entrance loomed darkly in the middle of the forest, the light from the sun all but blocked out from by the treetops.

They began to slow their pace as they grew closer, relief already beginning to wash over them.

It did not last long.

As soon as they were a few feet away, the forest went dead quiet and the sound of ragged breathing emanated from every direction except for in front of the two. They slid to a halt as soon as they reached the entrance. Felix turned on his heel, gripping the sword in both hands and preparing to fight.

What he saw was intimidating, to say the least. Four sets of purple eyes stared back at him from the darkness, with each shambling closer by the second. He took a step backward, his courage and his stamina already reaching their limit. Sirona stood next to him, her teeth clenched and tiny plumes of fire peeking out from behind her fangs.

The first creature stumbled out from the darkness, it's armor clanking noisily. There was a difference between this creature and the one they had slain, with this one wielding a halberd and having slightly heaver armor.

Sirona was quick to act, taking a step forward and snarling. Not a moment later, she reared back and shot a glob of Poison at the creature. The glob landed on the creature's shoulder, as well as splashing onto it's halberd and helm. The creature gave a screech as it's body was eaten away by the acid within the glob of Poison. In seconds, the armor and charred shoulder of the creature was burned away so severely that it's arm fell from it's body and the halberd fell apart at the handle.

Felix watched in horror as the acid ate away at what remained of the creature, barely noticing as a second breached the shadows and rushed him with and axe in hand. He caught a glimpse of the offense in the corner of his eye, ducking just in time for the axe to glide over his head harmlessly.

While he was still crouched Felix drew back his sword and swung, cutting deep into the creature's side before ripping the blade from it's body. The creature snarled as it stepped back, preparing to attack once more. Felix held his sword at the ready, feeling a hint of the courage he had mustered earlier return to him.

The creature roared as it lifted it's axe above it's head, bringing it down with a whooshing sound. Felix stepped to the left, easily avoiding the telegraphed attack and plunging his sword into the same wound he had created. This time he twisted the blade and drove it deeper, making the creature howl.

Meanwhile, a third creature dashed out of the shadows at Sirona with a spear aimed low in order to pierce her body. Sirona leapt forward, spinning her body in place and using her axe shaped tail blade to hack into the creature's ankle. It fell with a crack from it's armor, but it was still alive.

Sirona spared no mercy as she opened her mouth and unleashed a stream of red-hot fire on the downed creature, drawing an ear piercing screech from it as the armor it wore melted into it's body and killed it.

Felix and his opponent circled each other, ignoring the screech of the dying creature and instead focusing on their duel. The creature leapt forward, once again going for a downward strike with it's axe. Felix side-stepped the attempt and circled around behind the creature, gripping it's shoulder plate and quite literally backstabbing it. The creature gasped before falling limp, sliding off of Felix's sword lifelessly.

The fourth and final creature stepped forward with a snarl that made the travel partners' blood run cold. Felix and Sirona turned to face their new enemy, finding that it looked much more different than the others.

This creature was easily two feet taller than Felix, who stood at 5'9 inches. In it's right hand was what would be a greatsword to any normal man and in the other a blood-stained battle axe. Many blades pierced it's body, with the various handles and grips of the weapons hanging in the air behind it.

Sirona was quick to reason that fighting this creature would get them both killed, but they could buy themselves some time.

"Felix! Go into the Catacombs!"

Felix gave a bewildered look. He gazed at Sirona for any sign of doubt, of which he found naught but determination. He took a few steps back, preparing to retreat. He stopped before he did, taking the time to say something.

"Don't die."

Though they were lackluster in his opinion, those were the only words Felix could think of before darting into the Catacomb entrance. Sirona listened to his retreating footsteps before taking a few steps backward of her own. She stared down the creature with determination that could temper steel, feeling her plan click into motion.

The creature took a step forward, shaking the ground slightly. Sirona decided that her moment was now, releasing a stream of fire at the creature. It recoiled as the flames burnt it's already charred skin and heated it's armor.

Sirona quickly changed breaths, this time aiming towards the creature's legs and blasting them with a stream of Ice. The creature's feet were soon frozen in place, leaving it immobile and occupied with the growing flames on it's body. Sirona took the opportunity and literally turned tail, leaping into the Catacomb entrance.

She came to a small platform thay served as the top of a set of large stairs before turning around and taking a deep breath. She once again unleashed a stream of Ice, building an ice wall at the entrance of the Catacombs and sealing them shut.

After finishing the ice wall, Sirona took a moment to catch her breath. The creature would not stay immobile for long, and the ice wall wouldn't keep it from getting in for any large amount of time either. The only choice they had was to either retreat further into the Catacombs and let it chase them, or to confront it.

She preferred the former, honestly. That thing was a bit beyond her expertise despite her training and experience against such large creatures during her quest to retrieve Eclipsen's twin swords.

She turned around, taking in the the majesty of the Catacombs. The platform she stood on led into a large staircase that spiraled deeper into the yellow brick ruins that made up the Catacombs. Only cavern walls surrounded Catacombs entrance, but eventually they fell away to reveal a large underground cavern system that was littered with towers that most likely made up the ruins on the surface.

Sirona sighed before walking to the edge of the platform and beginning the long walk down the stairs.

-Transition-

Felix breathed heavily as he rested on the yellow brick platform under him. He had retreated into the Catacombs, dashing down at least half a block of stairs before having reached a small platform that served as his current resting spot. His sword sat next to him, the black liquid dripping off of it and staining the yellow brick.

He took a look around him, finding that the cavern looking walls he had seen when he entered had transitioned into smoother, more square shaped yellow brick walls. He allowed his body to relax, laying down on his back in the process.

His breathing evened as he rested, but it didn't dispel the slight shake his hands had been stricken with. To face five of those creatures in one day had wrought havoc on his mind and body, leaving him in a state of numbness, both mentally and physically.

He hoped that Sirona hadn't sacrificed herself, as that would most likely break what was left of his sanity and leave him stranded with no map or guide to help him along. Felix sighed as he rubbed his forehead. He was way in over his head, but he had no choice but to push onward and that truth was hitting him hard.

The sound of claws on stone brought Felix out of his thoughts, prompting him to sit up and look at the stairs where he had come from expectantly. His suspicions were rewarded as he saw Sirona descend the stairs. Both companions lit up upon seeing each other, with Felix standing to meet Sirona as she dashed down the rest of the stairs.

"Felix! Are you okay? Did anything happen?"

Sirona asked as she reached the platform that Felix stood on. Letting his snarky side get the better of him, Felix ended up blurting.

"That's something I should ask you."

Sirona blushed upon hearing the words. Felix found it a mix between cute and interesting, as Sirona's purple scales made her blush look a bluish color intstead of pink or a brighter purple. Sirona quickly snapped out of her embarrassment, her determined look returning.

"I sealed the entrance to the Catacombs, but it won't hold for long. We need to get going."

Felix, against his better judgement and to the chagrin of his locked emotions, only responded with a strong nod. He bent down to pick up his sword, lightly flicking away some of the black goop that covered it. Sirona noticed the poor condition of the blade before stepping forward.

"Hold it still for a second."

Felix gave a questioning look, but did so. Sirona opened her mouth before letting out a plume of fire onto the sword. The black ichor caught fire easily and Felix extended his arm to distance himself from the flame. The black goop was quick to loose it's integrity, dripping and falling off the blade like mud would heavy rain.

The flames clung to the black substance as it fell, leaving behind a clean and shining blade that looked as though it had just been oiled and sharpened. Felix admired it with fascination for a few seconds, with Sirona watching with a slight feeling of pride in her chest.

Soon, she motioned towards the second set of stairs downward. Felix slid the sword into it's scabbard upon seeing her hint.

With that, they began to descend deeper into the Catacombs.


	10. The Catacombs

LoNeWoLf: Yes. Yes you did.

Today's track is Archer's Theme from Fate Stay Night. Enjoy!

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Felix gazed at the architecture of the Catacombs, finding it strange that such squarely cut walls could be created without any kind of machinery or equipment. The stairs were also incredibly well cut, with each step being perfectly sized and proportioned, with the exception of the erosion caused by time.

At this point, the two had been walking for a little over ten minutes. The air was getting cooler, telling Felix that these ruins must of been deep underground. The stairs seemed to spiral downwards farther than anything in his world could. Sirona's claws clicked against the yellow stone quietly, giving some background noise to the journey downward.

"What is the story behind this place?"

Felix asked as he looked around once more. Sirona kept her eyes on the stairs, since walking down stairs with four legs was slightly more difficult than with two.

"These are the remains of ancient ruins that the Human's used as pathways across the Dragon Realms. The Evil Entity I told you about made use of them as a base for it's armies."

Felix nodded. These ruins had an air of age around them, with signs of erosion and damage caused by time.

It was then that the yellowed walls around the stairs ended, revealing a world beneath the surface. Yellowed stone towers stretched into the darkness, seemingly holding up the surface and keeping the large cave system from collapsing. The spiraled stairway they walked on ended on a large stretch of yellow ruins that had the overall look of the great wall of China that Felix had seen pictures of.

The bottom of the large caves had various other yellow ruins dotting the landscape, mostly surrounding the ruined towers.

Sirona smiled as Felix looked on in wonder and amazement. She had the same look when her father had brought her down her for the first time. The ancient ruins, in her opinion, were the greatest remnants of the ancient Humans that had built them.

"Welcome to the Catacombs!"

The purple dragoness said as they reached the bottom of the stairway. The ruins ahead were marked by a stone gateway that lead into what looked like a large pathway through the caverns.

"How did they build all of this?"

Felix muttered as he followed Sirona. She kept her smile as they moved through the gate and further into the Catacombs.

"We really don't know. The Human's lived nearly six millennia ago, long before Dragons or even Proto-Draconic creatures evolved."

Wait, Proto-Draconic? That word stirred some confusion in Felix.

"Proto-Draconic?"

He asked in a questioning tone, which Sirona was easily able to understand.

"Proto-Draconic is the word we use for creatures that eventually ended up evolving into Dragons. Eclipsen says it's the equivalent of Neanderthals to Humans."

Sirona said as that began to descend another set of stairs. Felix thought over the explanation as he walked, keeping his left hand gripped on his sword.

A sudden cracking sound caught their ears, prompting them to look around. Suddenly, a piece of the cavern ceiling broke and fell, landing on the bottom of the caverns with a horrible smashing sound. The absence of the piece let a beam of light shine down into the caverns.

"Wow..."

Sirona muttered, finding the beam of light beautiful in the complete darkness of the Catacombs. Felix also found the light pretty, but the collapsing of the piece brought up the fear of the entirety of the cave system coming down on their heads.

"We should keep going."

Felix said, drawing Sirona out of her daze. The young dragoness nodded before walking forward with her companion following close behind.

After a few minutes of walking, the two reached a large building atop the Catacomb pathway. A doorway allowed them entry, but the darkness within kept them from entering just yet.

"Do you have anything we can use as a torch?"

Felix asked as he peered into the doorway to no avail.

Then, two purple dots appeared in the darkness. Felix was quick to jump back and draw his sword, with Sirona putting up her guard in response. The sound of ragged breathing followed the appearance of the dots as one of the charred creatures stumbled out of the darkness.

It growled as it drew it's weapon, this time wielding a spiked mace. It took a few steps forward, snarling at it's two new targets.

Sirona sucked in a breath, preparing to breath a torrent of fire at the creature. She wasn't quick enough though, as the creature leapt forward and swung it's mace at Felix, who barely ducked in time to avoid it.

The creature readied it's mace once more, not giving Felix any time to recover. The human managed to bring up his sword in time to keep the mace from colliding with his skull, but the attack knocked the blade out of Felix's hands.

The creature snarled as it raised it's mace, preparing to finally kill it's prey. Felix brought his hands up to protect his face, failing to notice the golden glow encasing his hands.

The stone around the creature seemed to hiss, drawing it's attention. The Earth leapt upward, impaling the creature as multiple stalamites erupted from the stone. The creature howled as the four stone spikes kept it in place long enough for Sirona to loose the flames she had been preparing.

The flames quickly consumed the creature, putting it out of it's misery in record time.

The purple dragoness quickly leapt to Felix's side. He kept his arms around his face, unaware that the creature was dead. Sirona frowned.

"Hey Felix? You can stop now."

The human seemed to snap out of his fear, moving his arms away from his face and beholding the image of the creature burning while being kept in place. Felix relaxed, allowing his arms to fall onto the stone and sighing heavily.

He really wished this kind of thing would stop happening.

He remained on the floor for a moment before groaning and lifting himself from the ground. He brushed his clothes of the dust as he grabbed his sword. He turned back to the burning creature, staring at the newly generated stalagmites.

Sirona walked up to them, also inspecting them.

"This is the second time this had happened."

Felix muttered. The warm voice then invaded his mind once more, brining about a spell of dizziness.

_Bend my flesh to your will..._

Felix pressed a hand to his forehead, sighing as the dizzy spell faded. Sirona watched with worry in her eyes. Her companion seemed to be deteriorating, which scared her.

"Come on, lets keep going."

She said as she walked past the trapped corpse of the creature. Felix nodded before following, joining her at the doorway.

Sirona craned her neck, opening one of the pockets on her harness and pulling out a thick piece of kindling. She handed it to Felix who held it still as she blew a plume of flames onto the end of it, creating a makeshift torch.

Felix lifted the torch and stepped into the doorway slowly, still fearing the possibility of another encounter with the creatures. He stepped to the right, allowing Sirona to enter beside him.

He waved the torch around, revealing something terrifying.

Dozens of the creatures laid motionless around the room, their charred bodies sitting in awkward positions. Some of them were even impaled on their own weapons.

"By the Ancestors..."

Sirona whispered as they stepped over the sprawled out bodies. They quickened their pace as they saw another doorway through the darkness, nearly jogging through it as they rushed to be away from the supposedly dead creatures.

The doorway led into another spiral set of stairs, this time bearing a railing around the edge. They crept down the stairs as quietly as they could, eventually reaching and going through another doorway.

The third room they came to was highly decorated, with a gold encrusted rug and various tapestries lining the wall. Sirona looked around the room with interest, with Felix following suit and holding the torch above Sirona so they could see.

One tapestry depicted a warrior wearing golden armor and facing down several Wyvern-like creatures with sword in hand. The second was of a large city made of dark stone, with a huge creature encased in purple smoke watching over it.

The third tapestry showed a golden longsword embedded in a rock, reminding Felix heavily of Caliburn, the sword in the stone.

"Amazing..."

Sirona muttered, marvelling at the woven art. Felix nodded before walking forward, the light from the torch revealing another doorway, but this one with a door left on it's hinges.

Felix gave the door's knob a twist. It didn't budge, as the stone had been eroded so much that it refused to turn. The human took a step back before lifting his leg.

"What are you doi-"

Sirona was unable to finish her sentence as Felix kicked the door from it's hinges with a crash, revealing the end of the building and more of the Catacomb pathway. Sirona deadpanned as Felix steadied himself, a nearly intoxicated smile on his face.

"I've always wanted to do that."

He said dumbly. Sirona sighed with a smile as Felix chuckled to himself.

Then another sound hit their ears. The sound of screeching metal and the groaning of the creatures suddenly filled the air, emanating from the other room. Sirona gave a glare to Felix, who was quick to mutter and apology.

They dashed out of the building, hoping to loose the creatures by moving further down the pathway. They paced themselves at a high-capacity jog, with Felix rubbing the end of the torch on the stone to put the fire out before slipping it into his cloth belt.

The creatures burst out of the building, shuffling quickly after the pair and ignoring the the broken door. The creatures were slower than Felix and Sirona, but they maintained a good speed nonetheless.

The two, upon seeing the creatures dash out of the doorway, increased their speed to a sprint.

Soon, the image of the creatures following them faded from view and the two decided to stop and catch their breath.

Felix breathed heavily, supporting himself by placing his hands on his knees. Sirona simply plopped down on the stone.

The two shared a look before deteriorating into tired laughter at the situation they just ran from.

-Transition-

"Think they're still following us?"

"Judging by their obsession with killing me, I would say yes."

Felix responded as the two maintained a fast walk down the Catacomb pathway. At this point, they had been walking for a little over an hour. They had yet to come across any other noticeable places along the pathway besides passing a towers in the far distance.

Felix felt his legs disagree with his choice to continue walking, but he ignored them. He would rather keep walking then risk having the creatures catch up with them.

"What do you think those things are?"

Sirona asked absent-mindedly. Felix wondered the same thing himself. They looked to be human, but the state their bodies were in should've been enough to keep them dead and gone.

He offered a sound of resignation in return, prompting Sirona to sigh.

As they reached the top of a small incline in the pathway, they saw their destination. The pathway they were walking on ended at one of the large towers that stretched up into the surface. Further along the pathway was a gate and a large doorway into the tower.

Felix and Sirona shared a look before beginning their trek towards the gate. The decline of the pathway let gravity spur them onwards, speeding their movement forward.

As they rushed down the path, Felix noticed as few figures beyond the gate and easily deduced what they were. He slid to a halt, looking around for a path around them. Sirona stopped a few steps ahead of him, turning around and giving a curious look to the figures that she had also spotted.

Felix looked to the left, noticing a small stone tower that looked like it used to be a support for the gate.

"Sirona, do you think you can knock that down?"

He said as he pointed to the the small tower. She looked over at it before shaking her head.

"No, it's too wide. Poison won't melt through it and a blast of fire won't do enough damage."

Felix knitted his eyebrows before a thought hit him. He lifted his left hand and closed his eyes.

The voice once more filled his mind along with a the energizing warmth.

_Another may help thou along thy way..._

The golden glow encased his hand and a tremor visibly shook the tower. The bottom of the tower cracked and top of it shifted to the right, toppling the structure. The two watched as the tower slammed into the path in front of the gate, creating a makshift path for them to use.

Sirona glanced between Felix and the tower, stunned by the event that just took place.

Felix lowered his hand shakely, feeling the energy in his muscles begin to disintegrate.

"Come on."

He said, taking a step forward and stumbling slightly. Sirona moved in front of him, preparing to catch him if he fell. She opened one of the pouches once more, pulling out another green Gem. Felix took it graciously, allowing the crystal's color to be drawn into his hand turn to dust.

Then the sound of metallic movement and the haggard breathing of the creatures caught their attention. They turned, watching as the creatures from the building climbed over the incline they had just come from.

Felix was quick to act, taking the opportunity to dash towards the now collapsed tower.

"Come on!"

He shouted, prompting Sirona to dash after him.

The creatires beyond the gate easily noticed as the pair climbed onto the fallen tower and began to move down it. The tower was wide enough for them to walk down, but not wide enough to give Felix enough confidence to simply run down.

This cost them dearly as the creatures began to claw away at the edge of the tower, eventually climbing onto it themselves. Felix reached the bottom soon after, jumping down into the stone pathway that was at the bottom of the tower.

Sirona soon followed suit, running quickly after Felix as he dashed across the suspended pathway. He stopped dead when he noticed four of the creatures standing at the end of the path. Sirona slammed into his legs, but he didn't budge.

"Why are you stop-"

She began to say until she looked around his legs, easily determining why her companion had stopped. She looked back, finding that the creatures had also made their way onto the path from the bottom of the tower.

The two traveling companions stood back to back, with Felix drawing his sword and putting on a fierce face. Sirona allowed fire to fill her throat as she prepared to defend herself.

The creatures crept closer on both sides, drawing their weapons and snarling. Felix felt his hands begin to shake, his fear soon filling his mind.

The movement of the creatures seemed to be slower than ever before as the two prepared to fight to their deaths, now knowing escape was impossible.

Then, the sound of lightning filled their ears and a flash of light emanated from above them. Felix looked upwards just in time to watch as an explosion rocked the area past the gate.

A trail of purple lightning flickered past the edge of the platform before the form of a creature was sent flying over the path and into the darkness.

A figure followed, with a purple cloth trailing behind. The figure landed roughly on the pathway in front of Felix, revealing the figure to be a person wearing a hooded purple long coat.

The figure used their sword to prop themselves up before pulling the sword from the stone and pointing it at the creatures in front of them.

(Fate Stay Night: Archer's theme)

Sirona peeked past Felix's legs. A smile then encompassed her face as she laid eyes upon the hooded figure.

"Follow me."

A voice called out, easily being the figure's. Felix watched in amazement as purple lightning trailed down the future's sword before exploding outwards, hitting the first of the four creatures in the chest and sending it rocketing backward.

The subsequent impact sent the other three creatures spiralling into the cavern floor below.

The figure sprinted forward, sheathing their sword as they ran. Felix hesitated a moment before following, watching as the figure's long coat swayed in response to their sprint.

Something seemed off about the figure to Felix, but he wouldn't pass up the opportunity to escape. Sirona followed close behind, her smile still present.

The three soon reached the end of the pathway, meeting a stone door. The figure was quick to kick the door open, standing to the right and allowing the two behind to go in first. The door led to another spiraled staircase that Felix sprinted up.

He reached the top in record time, quickly passing through another door and into the area before the door into the tower. Felix glanced backward, finding that most of the creatures had climbed down the collapsed tower to follow them, leaving none left to chase them.

Felix quickly began to run towards the door before sliding to a halt.

Sirona soon exploded out of the doorway in pursuit of Felix, her claws digging into the stone in order to bring her to a stop.

She ran to Felix's side, spotting what Felix had moments before.

A blonde haired man sat quietly on a fallen piece of stone in front of the door into the tower.

"Hello there."

The man said as the figure emerged from the doorway. Felix took a step forward, his left hand tightening it's grip on his sword.

The figure joined the two, watching as the man stood from his resting place and brushed himself off.

"Who are you?"

Felix shouted, taking another step forward. The man flashed a grin before before responding.

"My name is Vekheven, and I'm here to kill you."


	11. The Avenger

Themes for this chapter are Eiyuu Ou from Fate Stay Night and The Day is My Enemy by The Prodigy.

Enjoy!

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(Fate Stay Night: Eiyuu Ou)

"My name is Vekheven, and I'm here to kill you."

Felix reeled at the man's words, taking a small step backward and gripping his sword with both hands. It didnt stop his shaking, which was most likely from the combination of recent traumas and the adrenaline in his muscles.

The hooded person took a step forward, drawing their sword and allowing it to rest at their side. Sirona growled quietly to Felix's right, her flames already threatening to spill from her mouth.

Felix swallowed.

"Why?"

He asked, still holding onto his sword tightly. The blond man, Vekheven, simply chuckled. The sound was disturbing, with an underlying tone of hatred and malice.

"Oh, no reason. Well, besides the fact that my Master wants you dead."

The hooded person decided to speak this time, taking another step forward.

"Who is your master?"

"No one you would know."

The hooded person's stance shifted slightly, their hood moving downward in an emotion that Felix couldn't determine.

They stood quietly for a moment, giving Felix time to take in Vekheven's image.

Vekheven was blonde man, standing just a few inches taller than Felix. His blonde hair was straight and only reached to his nose in length. He bore piercing golden eyes that had a hidden feeling to them that Felix couldn't quite describe.

He wore attire similar to Felix's in the sense that it was not modern by any means. He wore a navy blue tunic and trousers, covered by a leather breastplate and pauldrons. A pair of short brown leather gloves covered his hands and leather boots adorned his feet.

A golden sword was strapped to his back, shining despite what little light there was. A ruby was embedded in the hilt of the sword, glimmering beautifully in the low-light environment.

Vekheven suddenly smiled. It was a creepy thing, his smile. It was dripping with metaphorical venom and a pair of particularly sharp canines lined Vekheven's mouth, making it even more inhuman.

"I suppose I should get this done quickly."

Suddenly, Vekheven was in front of Felix.

The human tried to retreat, only to gasp as Vekheven's fist planted itself in his stomach with an amount of force that was surely not possible. A sickening crack reverberated through Felix's chest before blood came pouring from his mouth.

The glob of blood barely missed Vekheven's hand as it was dragged down to the floor by gravity. The blonde man kept his fist in Felix's abdomen, twisting it slightly as he leaned in to whisper in Felix's ear.

"Just know this. You'll never surpass me, little gnat."

Those words were the only thing Felix could hear clearly, only registering Sirona's worried yell to his left as a faraway sound.

Vekheven's fist disappeared as quickly as it had connected, with the blonde man leaping backwards to avoid the hooded man's sword.

Sirona leapt forward, managing to catch Felix before he collapsed on the floor. The hooded man held his sword tightly in his right hand, moving to stand in front of the injured human.

"Sirona, get him as far away as you can. I'll handle this."

The voice of the hooded man was clear despite the ringing in Felix's ears.

The pain in his chest was excruciating, easily being far worse than the pain he had felt in his arm. It felt as if a red hot poker had been jabbed into his stomach and left there to cool. He could only muster up a whimper as Sirona bit into his collar and began dragging him backwards.

Felix looked upwards, marvelling at the sight of the hooded person's purple longcoat as it swayed in the breeze generated by the caverns.

The world went black soon after.

-Transition-

Sirona growled as she dragged Felix backwards. She could tell he had passed out, as he had fallen limp after she began moving him. It didn't really matter where she positioned Felix at, as long as he was safe.

Her eyes were more occupied with watching the hooded person stare Vekheven down. His longsword gleamed in what little light there was and his purple longcoat exuded an air of authority.

She knew who the hooded person was, but Vekheven was about to learn a much more valuable lesson.

The blonde man didn't flinch before the intimidating figure, resting a hand om his hip and putting on a confident smile.

"I'm sorry to disappoint you, but I don't have time to fight you."

The hooded figure's stance shifted slightly, standing still for a moment. His gaze centered on the large door that led into the tower, the cogs almost visibly turning behind the shadow of his hood.

The hooded person's hand shot upward and from his palm leapt a pure stream of scorching purple lightning. Vekheven jumped to the left in order to avoid the deadly stream of electricity, watching as the lightning met with the gate-like door behind him.

The stream started from the top of the door before moving downward, leaving a welded and scorched path of stone. Eventually the lightning reached the bottom and the hooded person closed his fist, dismissing the lightning.

The hooded man's gaze re-centered on Vekheven, who looked at the now sealed door with anger.

"It seems that you do not have a choice."

The hooded man said as he sheathed his sword. Vekheven stared at the hooded person, a look of complete and utter rage on his features.

(The Day is My Enemy - The Prodigy)

Vekheven's feet cracked the stone beneath him as he launched towards the hooded figure, his fist already poised to strike with inhuman power.

Within the span of a millisecond Vekheven had reached his opponent. He unleashed his strike with rage fueled energy, only for it to be caught swiftly by the hooded man.

Vekheven growled, quickly breaking free from his opponent's grip and going for a right hook. The hooded person side stepped the attack easily, planting his own fist in Vekheven's side. The wind in the blonde man's lungs quickly rushed out of his mouth, forcing him to take a step back.

The hooded man was unforgiving in his attack, quickly closing the distance and raising his leg. The following kick produced a small shockwave and caused the stone around them to rumble. Vekheven was sent rolling by the impact, his chest stinging from the strike.

Vekheven dug his fingers into the stone, stopping his movement and using his new leverage to fling forward once more. He went for left hook as he reached the hooded man. The swing missed, which Vekheven immediately tried to remedy with a swift right jab.

The strike connected, producing another shockwave as Vekheven's fist collided with the hooded man's hidden face and knocked the hood away from his head.

Vekheven hopped backwards, watching as his opponent recovered.

The hooded man cracked his neck as he recovered from the blow, not bothering to pull his hood back up.

He was a white haired man in his mid thirties, with a long mane of hair paired with a Van Dyke moustache and soul patch. Blood trickled from the corner of his mouth, no doubt from the devastating blow he had just taken. His purple irises bore a thin red circle around the middle, making his gaze more unnerving.

Vekheven had expected the man to have simply died. Instead, the hooded man corrected his posture with a crack from his spine.

The man watched as Vekheven's arrogant smirk melted into a look of pure surprise and growing horror.

The man wasted no time in dashing forward, swinging upwards and slamming his fist into Vekheven's stomach. He followed with a quick step backward and a devastating left hook that sent an even stronger shockwave rippling through the area.

Sirona smiled sadistically at the attack, feeling the satisfaction of Vekheven's beating fill her body to the bone. Felix groaned from the floor, having pulled himself from unconsciousness and witnessed the hooded man's retaliation.

"Who... is he?"

Felix muttered, his mind still not able to process the events around him and his bruised internals struggling to pull oxygen into his lungs. Sirona's smiled even wider, watching as the hooded man unleashed another punch to Vekheven's cheek.

"That's Eclipsen, Felix."

Felix's eyes widened as Eclipsen kicked Vekheven once more, sending the blonde into the wall behind him with a crack from the stone.

Vekheven dodged desperately as Eclipsen sent blow after blow his way. It wasn't enough to do significant damage, but it definitely hurt.

Eclipsen advanced quickly, jabbing Vekheven in the nose before stomping on his foot. Before he could yelp at the pain, Eclipsen hit him with an uppercut to the chest followed by a vicious left hook. Vekheven stumbled, unable to block as Eclipsen rushed forward and kicked him in the side.

The attack sent Vekheven sliding to the right, the stone cracking and splintering from the speed at which he was sliding. Eclipsen swiftly gave chase, giving a quick puch to Vekheven's left side before unleashing another uppercut, this time to Vekheven's chin.

Vekheven flew through the air, slamming into the ground hard before sliding and flipping backwards. He quickly stood and tried to correct himself, but Eclipsen was faster and cut his recovery short with a kick to the chest. The blow sent the blonde into the wall once more, cracking the stone more severely than last time.

Eclipsen dashed forward once more, forcing Vekheven to duck as he plunged his fist into the yellowed stone with enough force to make the door to the left shake and rumble. Vekheven stepped to the left, jabbing Eclipsen in the side and angrily punching him in the face before he could dislodge his arm.

This only managed to make Eclipsen angry, prompting him to rip his arm from the stone with increased vigor. Vekheven went for another punch, only for Eclipsen to catch the swing and twist his arm painfully. Vekheven yelled as his opponent pulled him closer and planted his knee into his stomach, following with a particularly vicious elbow to the spine.

Vekheven's face met the stone painfully, feeling his nose give a disapproving crack and the stone beneath him crater slightly. He rolled to the right before Eclipsen's foot could slam onto him, giving the blonde a chance to recover.

Instead of giving chase, Eclipsen stood still as Vekheven rose from the floor. The blonde growled as he wiped some blood from his nose. Eclipsen stared emotionlessly as Vekheven prepared to attack.

Vekheven ran forward, splintering the stone where he once stood with the sheer force he used to propel himself. He went for a right hook that Eclipsen effortlessly dodged before following up with a spinning kick that was also, unsurprisingly sidestepped.

An area of the stone shattered and flew in all directions as Vekheven's boot collided with it, allowing Eclipsen to uppercut him in the stomach before unleashing a punch to the face.

Vekheven growled as he slid backwards, now determined to stay upright and gain some ground in the battle. Eclipsen closed in within a second, sending his fist towards Vekheven's face.

The blonde leaned backward, dodging the strike by an inch before reaching out and gripping Eclipsen's purple longcoat. He held tightly onto the cloth as he slammed his knee into Eclipsen's stomach, following with a quick jab to the face and an even stronger right hook.

The stone beneath Eclipsen's right leg shattered under the amount of strength he used to keep himself upright, but the sudden drop in foothold didn't stop the white haired man from springing back from the attack and hitting Vekheven with a particularly powerful punch.

The force of the blow sent the back of Vekheven's head into the stone, with his legs flying into the air as result of the jerking movement. The kenetic energy didn't dissipate at the floor though. Instead, it sent Vekheven's head surfing across the area, coming to a halt just before the door into the tower.

Vekheven groaned as he pulled himself from the floor, glancing at the solid line of broken stone that had been created. Eclipsen stood stoically at the other end of the trail, his face bearing no signs of damage besides the blood trail from the corner of his mouth.

The blonde man pulled himself from the floor, stumbling a bit as he made his way to the sealed door.

As he reached it, a golden glow enveloped his hand. He proceeded to pull back and slam his knuckles into the melted part of the door, causing the two doors to crack apart and fly open with a terrible screech from the stone under them.

Vekheven turned back, looking at Eclipsen with hatred filling his eyes.

"I'm not going to stop until he is dead. You can't protect him forever."

With that the blonde man retreated into the darkness of the tower, his golden sword sparkling until not even the glowing image of it was left.

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There you go! An entire chapter of a fistfight!

I really wanted to write a chapter of two people Just beating the absolute shit out of each other, and I want to hear your opiniom of it.

Leave a review, please. I'd love to hear how I did.


	12. The Second Request

Felix opened his eyes slowly, still dreading the moment when he would wake up and feel the pain that had sent him spiraling into sweet unconsciousness in the first place.

Instead of seeing the yellow brick of the Catacombs, he saw a more familiar sight.

He resided once more in the bloomed green field that his last dream had taken place in. The grass in the field still swayed in the wind and the gargantuan tree in the distance no longer stood above the marble pyramid, but had fallen onto the ground.

Felix glanced around, finding the woman in white standing quietly a few feet away. Her blonde hair fluttered beautifully in the wind and her dress had elongated, reaching down to her heels and bearing large frills that rippled rhythmically.

She turned to face him, her dress moving in response. Her green eyes shined with an unexplainable sorrow, but that didn't stop Felix from being strangely interested in her. The very air around her seemed to hold a mystery.

"You return, Champion."

Her lips moved, but her voice seemed to originate from somewhere completely different. Felix nodded quietly, as he couldn't think of anything to say that wasn't cheesy or from a horrible romantic film.

The woman took a few steps towards him, her dress fluttering as she moved. She stopped a few inches from him, her eyes never breaking contact from his.

She stared into Felix, her gaze seeming to see past him and into something within. The sorrow in her eyes began to intensify and a frown graced her features.

"Then you have met him."

She said, almost absent-mindedly. Felix allowed his confusion to show, letting an eyebrow move upward.

"Met who?"

"The one who came before."

She said as she turned away. Felix's curiosity still persisted, something that the girl already knew through her strange powers.

She took a few steps away from Felix, looking into the distance with sadness replacing the mysterious aura she had around her.

"He was the one who championed before you."

Felix let his eyes wander towards the ground, letting the words run through his mind a few times.

Then it clicked.

The blonde man, Vekheven. His power was something beyond what humanity had achieved in Felix's world. It struck him as strange for such a powerful individual to seek to kill him. Vekheven had mentioned that he had a master, but Felix doubted that Vekheven's master would want a weaker human dead.

Felix noticed that the girl's choice in words had also changed, being more modern compared to the words she had chosen before. Felix looked up, finding thag the girl had changed her position once more.

She stood in front of him once more, his left hand held gently between her own.

"Please, stop him. His hatred will break my heart."

"How? He was so strong."

Felix said. He thought it was pointless to hide his questions when the woman could easily discern his confusion. The girl looked to the right, pompting Felix into following suit.

On a distant hill stood the hooded man, his purple longcoat fluttering in the wind. His hands were buried in his pockets and the longsword he wielded was sheathed at his side. His hood no longer shadowed his face, revealing that a confident smirk adorned his lips.

"The one who defended you. He champions another, but his wisdom and power will guide you."

Felix stared at the man, his image stirring up what he remembered of the fight between him and Vekheven. He recalled what Sirona had told him, that the man was Eclipsen, the human to arrive before him.

That brought a familiar feeling into Felix's heart. His mind went through multiple scenarios where he was powerless and unable to protect himself, the same feeling that had drove him to isolate himself from nature and remain in his room for the majority of his high-school years. Or at least that's what the therapist had said.

Felix looked into the woman's eyes, trying to convey what he felt. Beneath the sorrow in her gaze crept up a sense of understanding and her grip on his hand tightened slightly. Not enough to hurt, but more than enough to feel comforting.

"Do not worry, my champion. My power is at your command, you simply need to call upon it."

The comforting warmth of the golden light filled his hand, making him look down and marvel as the light encased his hand. The woman's grip was just as warm as the light, but it felt more real than when he was awake.

The girl pulled a hand away from Felix's own, placing it on his cheek and guiding his eyes back up to hers. A sad smile still remained on her face.

"It seems that we have run out of time, my champion. Until next time."

With that the sky darknened and Felix's vision went black.

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Sorry for the short chapter. I really wanted to get this out before bed and the idea just stuck with me until I finished it.

Omce again, please leave a review. It really helps me publish these things.


	13. Moving Forward

Hey everyone. This is a reupload, since I accidentally posted the wrong document from my phone. Huge oopsie on my part.

But please, remember to leave a review.

On with the chapter!

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Sirona smiled widely as the familiar figure of Eclipsen jogged over to check on her fallen comrade, his purple long coat swaying rhythmically as it was known to do.

He wore his normal all-purpose attire, which consisted of a purple hooded cloth long coat that reached as far as his ankles, a black T-shirt underneath, black wrappings that concealed everything from his shoulders to his fingers, a pair of black pants and black armored leather boots.

At his belt were a collection of four bottles, all filled with a red liquid that swayed more actively than water. An obsidian colored ring encrusted with a blue jewel sat on his right hand, glowing slightly in the darkness of the Catacombs.

His trusty longsword, Mortifer, also hung at his belt. It shined with an otherworldly aura and it sat ready to be drawn at any time, like an animal ready to strike at it's prey.

His white mane of hair was swept back expertly and his Van Dyke moustache was styled the same as it always was. His normally crimson eyes were instead purple, and the ring of red around the outside of his irises had strangely disappeared.

"How did you find us so quickly?"

Sirona asked as Eclipsen got down on one knee to inspect the unconscious Felix. Eclipsen reached forward, putting two fingers onto Felix's chest before moving them downward and applying light pressure.

"Your letter reached me early in the morning. Crows are incredibly fast, you know. Of course, I only arrived a few minutes after you had already departed. I do believe we passed each other in the forest and never noticed."

After a few more light pokes to Felix's chest and groan from the unconscious young man, Eclipsen reached down and pulled the smallest of the bottles from his belt and popped the cork. A scent of artificial cherry filled the air soon after.

Eclipsen reached forward, gently patting Felix on the cheek. The younger human mumbled something, but refused to come out of his incapacitated state.

"Come on, Felix. I need you to be awake for this."

Eclipsen muttered, giving a few more pats to the wounded man's face. Sirona leaned forward, sniffing the opening of the bottle curiously.

"What is this stuff? Can't you just pour it in his mouth?"

Eclipsen sighed though his nose before giving a particularly harsh slap to Felix's face. The young man groaned and moved slightly, opening his eyes in a pained manner.

"It's a concoction we have been developing in the laboratory. It is meant to carry the same healing abilities as Red Gems, but the first few tests ended up being complete failures. We learned that Red Gems are very acidic when crushed and combined with salt water."

Sirona cringed at the thought while Eclipsen gently raised the bottle of red liquid to Felix's lips. The green clothed human took a sip of the drink before continuing when he deemed it drinkable.

"As for the second question, if I had poured it down his throat, he would have ended up inhaling it instead. Liquids tend to sting when you breath them."

Eclipsen continued to let Felix drink the liquid, pulling it away when the bottle had been drained halfway. Felix gave a groan, most likely still feeling an excruciating amount of pain. Eclipsen gave Felix a comforting pat on the shoulder as he hooked the bottle back to his belt.

"Come on, we need to get you moving. It will help with the healing process."

Eclipsen said. Felix made a noise of disagreement, but it fell on deaf ears as Eclipsen lifted him from the ground and wrapped Felix's arm around his shoulders.

Sirona stood by vigilantly, waiting for the moment when she could help. Eclipsen sent a nod of appreciation, which she answered with a friendly smile.

"I found the group of corpses you left in front of the entrance. I assume you held up fairly well in the fight?"

Sirona nodded, watching as Eclipsen got Felix to take a few steps towards the tower doors.

"Yeah. There was one left that we couldn't finish. Did you kill it?"

"No. There wasn't one left at all. Only three dead ones."

Sirona's eyes widened in horror. The large creature must have escaped and either fled into the forest or broke through the ice wall she had created.

"I sealed the entrance with some ice. Was it still there?"

"Yes. It was quite the pain to get through, which I must say is very impressive."

"Thanks."

Sirona said with a nod. She followed as Eclipsen got Felix to walk more effortfully. The darkness beyond the tower doors was almost impossibly thick, even giving the group the feeling of having a hard time breathing.

Eclipsen glanced at the torch in Felix's belt before redirecting his gaze towards the darkness.

"Felix. Can you hold that torch and walk at the same time?"

Felix made a sound of approval before using his free hand to pull the stick from his belt. Sirona snorted a bit of fire, catching the end of the stick easily and lighting a majority of the dark room around them.

They stood in what looked to be a massive library, with tables and chairs as well as the expected bookshelves. In the middle of the room as a massive spiraling staircase that was more roundedly cut than the smaller stairways before it.

Eclipsen looked around the room before his eyes caught a nearby table and chairs. Eclipsen moved as quickly as he could, being careful not to drag Felix and instead letting him walk on his own. Sirona followed, gazing about the room with wonder in her purple eyes.

Eclipsen pulled out a chair as they reached the table. He took the torch from Felix's hand and gently sat him down in the creaky old chair. The young man gave a sigh as he relaxed in the chair, most likely feeling the pain alleviate with rest.

Eclipsen kept his gaze on the recovering human before glancing at the large bookshelves that filled the room. The room must have housed at least three hundred bookshelves, with each one being thirty feet tall and filled to the edges with leather bound knowledge.

Eclipsen's curiosity began to peak as he approached one of the shelves. He was careful to keep the torch a good distance away from the books, as he had no idea how long they had been there and how dry they had gotten.

He reached out, pulling the first tome that caught his eye. The one he grabbed was incredibly old, with the leather being browned with age and dust. Eclipsen blew a stream of air onto the surface of the book, causing a tidal wave of dust to fly off the surface of the book.

Underneath the dust was a beautifully crafted tome, with golden glitter mixed in with it's title ink and the leather being dyed red under the browning of age. The title read something in ancient Human, which was pronounced something like old Gaelic combined with modern German.

Eclipsen ferried the book over to the table where he set it down and opened the cover. Sirona watched as he did so, putting her paws on the table in order to get a better look. Thanks to her height being around Eclipsen's waist, she could easily see what he saw, albeit at an angle.

Beyond the title pages and chapter index, the tome seemed to be an old novel that was incredibly well received for the times, including a large amount of small golden colored metal badges that rested on the back of the leather cover. Eclipsen flipped through a few pages, examining the ancient language closely.

"What does it say?"

Eclipsen flipped another page before returning to the one before it.

"I honestly don't know. We are still deciphering what little ancient Human we have on record in the Forgotten Realms. Only a few words a familiar, and even then they are relatively unhelpful."

Eclipsen said as he closed the book. He lifted it from the table, glancing at Felix who looked much more comfortable than before. Eclipsen turned to Sirona, holding the book out in an offering gesture.

"Sirona, do you think you can hold this and a few more in your travel harness?"

Sirona nodded, allowing Eclipsen to open one of the pouches and place the book inside. After sliding the book into the harness, the two began to explore the two bookshelves that the table in chairs were placed between.

Felix waited patiently, his head leaned back into the wooden chair and his eyes closed.

He couldn't sleep, but he could fall into a state of thoughtlessness, which he gladly took comfort in.

They searched the shelves for around twenty minutes, with each book being pulled from it's resting place being thoughtfully looked through before being placed either in Sirona's harness or back on the shelves.

The darkness of the room was still incredible. Even with the torch, the darkness obscured everything more than three feet away. It made it slightly difficult to navigate when they briefly lost sight of the chairs and table, and by extension, Felix.

They made their way back relatively easy, with the help of the torch and the sound of a wooden chair creaking.

When they got back, they found Felix struggling to lift himself upwards, gripping the edge of the chair in order to support the rest of the his weight that he could not carry.

-Transition-

Felix hissed silently as he lifted himself from the chair. His chest hurt. So much so that the only thing Felix could liken it to was having hot lava poured into an open wound that led into lungs. It was painful to breath. It was painful to exert any kind of effort in the first place..

But the pain was lessening by the moment. Whatever that man had given him was taking effect faster than any other medicine should have. Felix sighed as he supported his weight on the rickety old chair. It seemed that the more time he spent here, the less strange things seemed to get.

His memory of what happened before he fell into unconsciousness was hazy, and he vaguely remembered the battle between the hooded man and Vekheven. Then all he remembered was being in that strange dreamscape with the blond girl.

The sound of claws on stone and footsteps drew Felix's attention. He looked over, spotting Sirona as she jogged up to him. She circled around the table quickly, coming to a halt next to his right side.

"Felix! Are you alright?"

She asked. Her voice echoed greatly in the large library, making Felix think of a large cave system that echoed at the slightest sound. Felix answered Sirona by shaking his head. He was still in a great amount of pain, even if it was going away.

"The potion should have healed the majority of the damage. You can most likely walk without serious injury."

The man (Eclipsen, Felix corrected himself) said. His hood was drawn up once more, producing a strangely thick shadow that obscured the majority of his features. Even the base of his neck was hidden by the shadow, which was physically impossible if what Felix remembered from science class was to be trusted.

Eclipsen stepped forward and placed his hand under Felix's arm, helping him to walk without the chair. Felix took a few steps before Eclipsen let go, allowing the young man to stand on his own.

Though it hurt to breath, Felix found that everything from the waist down was perfectly functional. He would have a bit of a hard time fighting, but the blurry memories of Eclipsen's fight with Vekheven led Felix to believe that he was safe with the supposedly older and more experienced man around.

"Do you think you can continue?"

Eclipsen asked as he watched Felix balance himself. Felix glanced at the hooded man before drawing in a deep breath and nodding. He couldn't just give up now that they had gotten so far.

Eclipsen's stare was like daggers. Somehow, Felix could feel his eyes on him despite the shadow hiding his face.

The hooded man took a few steps forward and lifted the torch in his hand, giving a bit more light to the huge room they were in.

Felix's mind boggled at the sheer size of the room. The library itself must have been at least the size of an airplane hangar, maybe even larger than that. All Felix could tell was that the cieling was far, far above them.

"We should keep going. The top of the tower is at least a days travel. Perhaps two if we decide to rest for a while."

Eclipsen stated, his hood angled upwards so that his gaze was focused on the spiral staircase that started at the edge of the room. Even the width of the room was huge by Felix's standards.

"Come. We should try to make as much progress as possible."

Sirona gave Felix a look of worry as he cringed at the sharp pain in his chest. Felix returned the look before gesturing towards Eclipsen. Sirona's eyes glinted in response.

"Before that, Eclipsen, where have you been?"

Sirona asked. Eclipsen looked over quietly, the shadows of his hood seeming to grow ever deeper.

"Yes... I suppose introductions are in order."

Eclipsen turned to Felix and offered his hand. Felix hesitated for a moment before taking his hand and giving as firm a shake as he could without the pain in his chest making him cringe.

"My name is Eclipsen. It's a pleasure."

"Felix..."

He answered slowly, keeping the pain from flaring back up. Eclipsen gave a nod before gesturing for Felix to take the lead. The younger man sighed deeply before proceeding, his steps being slow and carefully coordinated.

"I assume Sirona has told you a great deal about me?"

"...Bits and pieces..."

Felix responded, his words being slow and deliberate. He had to take in deep breaths in order to speak loudly and clearly, but the pain was getting better with time.

"I suspected, but didn't want to assume. Is there anything you want to know?"

Eclipsen asked, the torch in his hand. providing a manageable amount of light as he walked alongside Felix. Sirona maintained her own slow pace on Felix other side, her face covered by a slightly happy grin that spoke of nostalgia and times passed.

"I have a few questions..."

"Please, ask away. I'll be happy to answer any questions you have."

Felix nodded as he walked. He brought up a few of the questions he had previously. How long had Eclipsen been here? How did he get here? Why did he stay?

Eclipsen waited patiently as they approached the large staircase that the edge of the room, his hood facing toward their destination.

Felix drew in a breath as he chose which of his questions to ask first. Eclipsen seemed to perk up as he heard the sound, as if he was correctly guessing Felix's next actions to surprising success.

"You were the first human to come here?"

Felix asked in a tone that conveyed a want for confirmation rather than a true question. Eclipsen's hood moved in a nod before he answered.

"I was. I stayed over the course of four years. I had arrived originally with a relative of mine, but they returned to our home when they had the chance."

Eclipsen stated. Felix nodded and prepared to ask his next question. They were just a few more feet away from the stairs now, and I wouldn't take long for them to start the climb towards the top of the tower.

"How did you get here?"

Felix asked, managing to ignore the already lessening pain in his chest. It was no longer like hot metal on the chest. Instead it was more like dumping hot coffee on one's shirt. Eclipsen glanced at Felix for a moment before moving the torch from his right hand to his left.

"There was a sealed portal that had remained dormant for quite a while in this world. My relative and I had been doing something, I don't recall exactly what now, but something in what we were doing caused the portal to tear itself open. The location between our worlds had been a factor, as the coordinates of the portal had been the same in our world and this one."

Felix nodded. He was having a slightly harder time processing the information thanks to the pain, but it was registering. He would probably need to sleep on it for it to totally make sense. Felix prepared his next question.

They had reached the stairs and were now helping Felix to start the climb up the stairs. The muscles used in walking up stairs unfortunately involved the ones in his chest, which was particularly difficult given the still dissipating pain. Eclipsen grabbed Felix under his left arm, providing some support as they walked. Sirona had placed herself directly behind Felix so she could catch him if he tripped.

"What's different between this world and mine?"

Felix asked as he made his way up the first few stairs. Eclipsen shrugged as he helped the younger man along.

"In all honesty, I couldn't say. I would need to know solid facts about your world before I could make theories on the difference. Dates and significant events would give me an idea, but one thing we can say for sure is that Magic is far more prevalent in this world than in ones where humans are the dominant species."

"Why?"

Felix asked. What was so special about humanity? Eclipsen centered his gaze on Felix, but somehow continued to be aware of the steps in front of him.

"Because humans are like sponges. They suck up anything they can get their hands on and then it just disappears. Natural resources, sunlight, sound and food. Even Magic is absorbed by the body before petering out into nothingness."

Something struck Felix as strange as Eclipsen moved his hidden eyes back towards the staircase, his left hand lifting the torch a bit so it could provide more light. Eclipsen spoke as if he considered himself not human, like humanity was something different from himself.

"Are you-"

"No, Felix. I'm not human. Not anymore."

Eclipsen answered before Felix had even finished his words. Felix stopped moving for a moment, his eyes locking onto Eclipsen who looked back from the darkness of his hood. There was an edge to Eclipsen's last sentence. Something heavy was behind it. What it was, Felix couldn't begin to guess.

In the darkness, Felix could swear that he saw a glint of crimson light.

Felix sighed before breaking the small staring contest and restarting his movement upward. The pain was truly starting to subside now, resembling something akin to a bee sting rather than the hot agony of earlier.

Sirona stepped quickly up the stairs, matching Felix's pace and staying at his right side. Eclipsen let go of Felix's arm, allowing the young man to walk on his own before following Sirona's example.

And so silence reigned as the three made their way up the stairs. Perhaps more questions would asked later, when the weight of the previous statement had subsided.


End file.
